I worked as an electrician in a coal mine for eight years after
leaving school. My fellow workmates had scant regard for the
"experts from Sydney" who came to fix the mining machines that used
newfangled thyristor controllers rather than the reliable
"resistance" controllers. The experts had their issues too ... lack
of experience was the biggest problem for them. They lacked the
crystallised knowledge that you only get from being a tradesman.
Their big plus was the education, that we disparaged and mocked; they
knew what was round the corner because - unlike us - they got to read
the peer-reviewed literature (IEEE abstracts and the like) and they
dug into the amazing stuff that was coming out of Silicon Valley ...
I remember one of the experts from Sydney showing me a National
Semiconductor data book (the Analog book, as thick as a telephone
book and so bloody cryptic). This was before the internet or PDFs.
Data books were all you could get.
I went back to school, did the university thing, and realised just
how much bigger the world was. Not just because was no longer in a
mine; but because there were so many more really smart dudes out
there, who did not miss a trick.
Now I work in research, as an assembler of small devices. I build
machinery, and I program microcontrollers in assembler and C, and
Macs in REALbasic. I am now uncomfortably aware of my ignorance of
so many things.
And, Theo, if I may pass on one vital piece of knowledge, it would be
this:- Don't mock a man for having gone to school.
Regards,
Tony Barry
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