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From: andy@Shasta.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.cse
Subject: Re: Role of computer science
Message-ID: <899@Shasta.STANFORD.EDU>
Date: Thu, 9-Oct-86 18:27:54 EDT
Article-I.D.: Shasta.899
Posted: Thu Oct  9 18:27:54 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 12-Oct-86 02:27:37 EDT
References: <10331@cca.UUCP> <10410@cca.UUCP> <10457@cca.UUCP>
Reply-To: andy@Shasta.UUCP (Andy Freeman)
Organization: Stanford University
Lines: 41

g-rh@cca.UUCP (Richard Harter) wrote:
>andy@Shasta.UUCP (Andy Freeman, ie I) wrote:
>>But seriously, professors here consult extensively/expensively and/or
>>have companies.  They also get a lot of industrial funding.  Assuming
>>that these companies are getting their money's worth, either the
>>professors aren't academics (by your definition) or these companies
>>value their academic bent.  (I suspect your definition.)
>>
>	Good point.  [Make that some professors though.]

I should have said "most Stanford CS professors consult and some have
companies."

>	Ignoring for the moment the cases where companies don't get
>their money's worth (not uncommon), I don't think your dichotomy is
>a true dichotomy.  If we grant that the entrepenurial professor is
>a true academic (there are purists who don't agree) we don't have to
>conclude that the purchasers want their academic bent -- what they
>want is their [the professors] specialized knowledge.

When I said "I suspect your definition [of academic].", I meant that
I don't believe it is nearly as common/accurate as you seem to think.
The entrepenurial professor can't behave as an academic (if it is
fatal in the commercial world) because he is the company.  (I'd be
surprised if consultants were significantly less, or more, productive.
If they are, then a company that adjusted would have a significant
advantage.)

Actually, professors behave differently in a commercial setting than
they do in an academic one.  What is that you said about "being a
quick study" as the most important ability in the commercial world?

-andy

ps - Until my third year of CS classes, I used a different language in
every class.  Is that enough change?  (That's what happens if you're
in school when everything is changing.)
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