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From: tim@praxis.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Resources and education
Message-ID: <638@newton.praxis.co.uk>
Date: Thu, 7-May-87 10:52:55 EDT
Article-I.D.: newton.638
Posted: Thu May  7 10:52:55 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 9-May-87 08:06:39 EDT
References: <780@killer.UUCP> <1262@arthur.cs.purdue.edu> <170@a.UUCP> <5@aimmi.UUCP>
Reply-To: tim@praxis.co.uk (Tim Magee)
Organization: Praxis Systems plc, Bath, UK
Lines: 82

In article <5@aimmi.UUCP> gilbert@aimmi.UUCP (Gilbert Cockton) writes:


> I've been led into this line of reasoning whenever I consider the

	You don't mention whether you refer to the 'line' of reasoning which
    precedes your diatribe or the 'line' of reasoning which constitutes it.
    Neither is continuous enough to be recognisably a line.

> However, I really do doubt whether we could really effectively expand
> the disciplines taught to CS undergraduates. In the UK, most students
> are narrow specialists by the age of 18, so it would only be cruel 
> making them think philosophically, write elegantly, reason with humility and 
> enquire into the appropriate body of knowledge ...

	Presumably you enquired into the body of knowledge dealing with
    psychological profiles of all 18-year-old students before writing this
    carefully-considered summary. Did you also take a dip in the pool of
    humility? I doubt it.

> ... and with no humbling peer criticism, which already exist elsewhere.

	The humbling peer criticism has obviously had its effect on you. Do
    you realise how silly this talk of humility looks in the context of the
    rest of the article?

> 
> There are now many people who have studied some computing, but whose
> main subject could not be studied at all without a high degree of
> intellectual flexibility, imaginative hypothesis generation and a
> sound exposure to those nasty philosophical problems that just can't
> be programmed away. ...

	So what do you want, a round of applause? People who try for
    philosophy degrees do so because they are inclined to think abstractly
    ( forgive the generalisation, I haven't asked them all, this is only my
    surmise ). That does not mean that they are all best suited to that
    style of thought. Some may be attracted by the two-paragraph sentence as
    a means of self-expression and be disappointed to be asked to think
    about tableness. Nor does that mean they won't get their degrees.

	And what is a degree? Three years of your life. If you're burned out
    after that why does any of us go on? After age 21, do we all stop being
    trainable? Oh, woe! Why don't I take myself out and shoot myself? Why,
    because I don't have that skill.
 
> slavish addiction to the nonsense of technical writing pundits (no
> passives! - 17 word sentences - who are these cultural vandals?).

	They are people who understand what they are going to write about
    and don't object to letting other people understand too. In fact they
    are so confident of their understanding that they will set it out in
    clear language to allow it to be criticised more easily by others.

	There is a difference between the sort of wording that wins Booker
    Prizes and the sort that communicates technical ideas.

> What many can't do is finish a dull, fiddly and technically intricate
> task - this is where you need your craftsmen.

	This last sentence sums up the whole article. We may have been
    privileged to see the emergence on the net of intellectual racism.
    Perhaps, though, the article can be attributed to a blind rage at the
    other article. I didn't read it but judging from the paragraph quoted it
    appears to be a shot across the bows from the 'Realprogrammerupuntiltwo-
    everymorningtakescoffeeIVandeatstwokilosofchocolateadayandsixburgersbefore-
    writinganoperatingsysteminmachinecodeandentersitbywhistlingdownaphoneline'
    faction of software engineers. Can a philosophy-with-computing ( another
    guess ) graduate be driven into a rage? Surely not.

	Well, I can't lay bricks. Does this mean that bricklayers as a race
    are the sublime pinnacle of pure intellect, or that they're the pits?
    Neither. It means I'll never earn a crust laying bricks.

	No smileys. If you don't mean it you won't say it.

	Tim M.
-- 
	Tim  Magee.
I[}}}]){{]]{{{(()((}})){{(){{(}}]){{{{{}}[[}}]){{{[]{{{{{}}}].
Charles Schulz points out that there is a difference between
a good philosophy of life and a good bumper sticker.