My rant... [Design]

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From: Jim Thompson on 28 Apr 2010 21:02

From: hamilton on 28 Apr 2010 22:31

On 4/28/2010 7:02 PM, Jim Thompson wrote:
> My rant...
>
> http://www.ahwatukee.com/articles/sky-9521-michelle-ago.html
>
> ...Jim Thompson
So you are saying that there are only two kinds of people,

Those that work and use the Entrepreneur spirit to get a company to make
money.

Then there are those "that steal from the rich"

The millions of people that are the middle class do not exist in your
definition of Americans.

Does that about sum it up ??

hamilton

From: mpm on 28 Apr 2010 23:04

On Apr 28, 9:31 pm, hamilton <hamil...(a)nothere.com> wrote:
> On 4/28/2010 7:02 PM, Jim Thompson wrote:> My rant...
>
> >http://www.ahwatukee.com/articles/sky-9521-michelle-ago.html
>
> > ...Jim Thompson
>
> So you are saying that there are only two kinds of people,
>
> Those that work and use the Entrepreneur spirit to get a company to make
> money.
>
> Then there are those "that steal from the rich"
>
> The millions of people that are the middle class do not exist in your
> definition of Americans.
>
> Does that about sum it up ??
>
> hamilton

No, not exactly.
The Wall Street types took their "middle class" status away years ago.
(along with their pensions, retirement, job security...)
Now "middle class" is just lip service, They'll be paying their
mortgages with their kids education dollars forever, thus perpetuating
the cycle.

The solution is actually quite obvious, and simple too:
We need a new bubble to ride.

I predict it will be Twitter or Facebook on the next generation
iPhone.
Or people putting GPS tags on everything from dogs to soup cans and
tracking their every move.
(In other words, no real productivity.)

Nice Op-Ed, Jim.
We don't always agree, but I thought it was well written.
The degree thing seemed a bit self-serving and elitest, and it's not
that degrees aren't needed: it just that the world moves faster than
traditional degree programs can keep up.
Some fields are worse than others, of course.

From: Joel Koltner on 28 Apr 2010 23:42

"mpm" <mpmillard(a)aol.com> wrote in message
news:74b966d2-0d5d-42ff-8882-873406c99557(a)k41g2000yqb.googlegroups.com...
> The degree thing seemed a bit self-serving and elitest, and it's not
> that degrees aren't needed: it just that the world moves faster than
> traditional degree programs can keep up.

There's plenty I disagree with Jim on, but his comment about degrees is one I
wholeheartedly do agree with: Most of the jobs today -- even those that
require engineering degrees -- are relatively "shallow" in the sense that it
doesn't take nearly four years to become proficient in them. E.g., without my
trying to be boostful here, I was absolutely a better software developer
coming out of high school than some of the computer science graduates I see
today, and I'm equally convinced that Jim was a better hardware designer out
of high school than many graduate BSEEs today.

One thing that I do think is more true now than ever before is the idea of
"life-long learning" -- while it's not particularly difficult, it's something
today's generation will largely need to be on top of whereas my impression is
that even 25 years ago after you finished college the likelihood of a vert
large percenteage of people every cracking open another textbook was nil. But
it's still life-long learning of pretty straightforward topics -- I'm amazed
that any job offering today includes such basic requirements as "proficiency
with MS Word," when by "proficient" they just mean, "can type up letters, do a
little formatting, mess around with headers and footers, generate a table of
contents, etc."

---Joel

From: Jim Thompson on 29 Apr 2010 10:14

On Wed, 28 Apr 2010 20:42:12 -0700, "Joel Koltner"
<zapwireDASHgroups(a)yahoo.com> wrote:

>"mpm" <mpmillard(a)aol.com> wrote in message
>news:74b966d2-0d5d-42ff-8882-873406c99557(a)k41g2000yqb.googlegroups.com...
>> The degree thing seemed a bit self-serving and elitest, and it's not
>> that degrees aren't needed: it just that the world moves faster than
>> traditional degree programs can keep up.
>
>There's plenty I disagree with Jim on, but his comment about degrees is one I
>wholeheartedly do agree with: Most of the jobs today -- even those that
>require engineering degrees -- are relatively "shallow" in the sense that it
>doesn't take nearly four years to become proficient in them.

mpm misses my point. Like most liberals he fails to notice that the
world is also populated by plumbers, electricians, machinists,
mechanics, etc., that don't need a "college" education... they need a
"trade school" education... and often these trades pay better than
what we "educated" people make.

In mpm's ideal world, everyone would be a member of Mensa. Having
been a member of Mensa, I can assure you they're primarily populated
by fatheads who think they should be paid according to their IQ, NOT
according to their productivity... heaven forbid we should include the
word "productive" in a liberal's vocabulary ;-)

>E.g., without my
>trying to be boostful here, I was absolutely a better software developer
>coming out of high school than some of the computer science graduates I see
>today, and I'm equally convinced that Jim was a better hardware designer out
>of high school than many graduate BSEEs today.

Perhaps. I could build things that worked. (Tooobz no less.) But I
only vaguely had a clue as to why.

>
>One thing that I do think is more true now than ever before is the idea of
>"life-long learning" -- while it's not particularly difficult, it's something
>today's generation will largely need to be on top of whereas my impression is
>that even 25 years ago after you finished college the likelihood of a vert
>large percenteage of people every cracking open another textbook was nil. But
>it's still life-long learning of pretty straightforward topics -- I'm amazed
>that any job offering today includes such basic requirements as "proficiency
>with MS Word," when by "proficient" they just mean, "can type up letters, do a
>little formatting, mess around with headers and footers, generate a table of
>contents, etc."
>
>---Joel

I'm still learning. I don't ever expect to stop... except for that
final stop sign :-)

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, CTO | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

The only thing bipartisan in this country is hypocrisy

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