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From: wayneck@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM (Wayne Knapp)
Newsgroups: comp.edu,comp.software-eng,comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: "Expertise"
Message-ID: <3976@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM>
Date: 4 Apr 89 18:38:53 GMT
References: <7531@thorin.cs.unc.edu> <3241@goofy.megatest.UUCP> <405@ntcsd1.UUCP>
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In article <405@ntcsd1.UUCP>, klt@ntcsd1.UUCP (Kristopher L. Tyra) writes:
>
>   ...  But the one thing I
>   studied (and hard) were the theoretical courses.  Because if you know theory
>   you know it!  I claim to know most all computer languages and operating 
>   systems because I understand the theories in which they were developed.  
>   Therefore to learn a new system I only need to worry about the semantics of
>   the system and sometimes the quirks.  
> 
>   I think examples are wonderful but it is "monkey see monkey do"
>   if you don't understand the theories.  In retrospect, I have seen and 
>   managed lots of programmers that do exactly what the book example tells them
>   to do and when it doesn't work (for some reason or another) it means the
>   machine is broken; all because they didn't understand what they were doing.
> 
>   My point is I would take 1 developer with theoretical understanding then 
>   10 programmers without.
> 
Someone with great so called theoretical background and little programming
experience is worthless in my eyes.  I've dealt with too many people that 
are into having a great theoretical background but have no idea on how to
apply the knowledge they claim to have.  If I were picking people for a 
project, I'd want the people with a history of getting programs finished 
over someone who thinks he knows how to program.  The person that has a good
history of getting the job done show he understands the theory by his 
application of it.  Some other guy without a finished program behind him is
just talking.

In real life the application of theory and the understanding of theory go hand-
in-hand.  The people who can really get the work done are the ones who balence
the application with the theory.  Theory without application is useless and 
application without theory is only busy work.  

                                Wayne Knapp