I wouldn't necessarily be happy getting a high-powered hard-core ultra-geek development job. I don't want to have to move to the Big City (tm) and ignore my family.
Going "deep" would be fun... but strategically, going "wide" would be just as good.
As a developer, I'm irritated with my dependence on cranky and unsympathetic sysadmin types. The Unix Admin Cert here:
... would let me pin down a side of the business I'm less comfortable with... give me a cheap platform to run my own apps on... give me the skills to try a Unix solution when I want to try that as a Guerilla solution... and... maybe open the door to a different sort of job in a location that would be a better fit for me. Maybe.
So... not a better hat... just more hats.... "IT Guys" are always generalists anyway. Why try to be something I'm not when I have a perfectly good career (even if it's a little dull.)
I defined it as "mostly coding database apps, doing tech support, and some sysadmin type duties."
That means coding the hell out of SQL... and then taking that SQL and dressing it up in ways that users can benefit from it without bothering me. Which means coming up with little cutsey applications that dish up a variety of "stupid spreadsheet tricks". I code these sorts of apps start to finish by myself, deploy them, and design them to require a minimal amount of maintenance. The language/system used is whatever is currently in use in the business environment-- except maybe something newer/better if the situation justifies it.
As a system administrator, I write perl scripts and put them up on the server to run on a schedule. I write little perl scripts for users to create new system commands for anything they ask me to do more than once. I know where to look to see if people can do their jobs or not... and I know the 5 most common things that need to be done when things don't work. Mostly this is starting and stopping services and/or killing bad processes.
I solve math problems. I'm the only person in the factory that will admit to knowing Trigonometry-- and as we're in manufacturing that actually comes up occasionally.
I talk with users to find out that they need. I actually care about them sometimes. I work with CPA's to find the missing eleven cents. I am sort of tangential to a lot of activity. If I don't fix something, I know who the go-to-person is. I often have to be the go-to-person anyway if the other guy is out sick.
90% of my job is actually social. I talk to people and use basic deductive reasoning to pin down what should be done. Then, when I don't know everything to do it, I coordinate with the people that do to make sure everything works out. I say 90% because I don't actually have to think much about the SQL, Perl, Blub, etc code anymore. The hard part is figuring out what people need as opposed to what they think they need.
I don't consider this to be "real" computer work. I'm just the "IT Guy". I don't believe I have to credentials to do "real" computer work. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't feel that there's much interesting stuff to learn in these particular trenches. I'm not sure that people in more interesting trenches would actually give a #$%*(#@ about what I know and do.
Hence the interest in maybe a certificate that amounts to half a Master's Degree.
I don't know if my work experience will make up for having no compsci bachelors courses on my transcript.
The prices are crazy steep, though! Wah! It's online, though.... A friend of mine says that this program has a really good name, though... not that the entrepreneurs here would care about that. ;)
They do stuff... cool stuff... even lispy stuff... but they remain practical and relatively humble. The TMTOWTDI philosophy seems to have hardwired a certain degree of open mindedness in them-- they just don't appear to be as arrogant or argumentitive in the usual internet wars. Just an impression, YMMV, etc....
There's a certain type of female that is completely addicted to the sort of raw intimacy and lavish attention that this type of person will deliver during the early stages of the relationship. They will overlook all kinds of problem signals if they are getting what they need in their inner core.
As another person said, this type of woman will have serious issues. That won't change the fact that you're getting laid.
The post explores a perspective for the express purpose of generating and connecting ideas and experiences. Other established interpretations are possible, but we will temporily set them aside so that we can hash out what is (potentially) a new idea.
Why is that so hard for some people to get? It's like you're unable to grasp how mathematics and science is done. You take a premise or form a hypothesis... then you see what you can build on it. 9 times out of 10 it doesn't go anywhere... but the time for rigor is later, not at the beginning.
It's as if the phrase "for the sake of discussion" is completely beyond your mental capacity or something....
Later. I'm working on a set of strategies that will allow me to be clear about my needs and limitations with people so I can be more productive to the people that matter to me and/or pay me money.
Hey, it's the holistic answer to the "how to". What, should I have broken it down into 12 steps?
To sum it up: let him solve problems his own way. Let him develop tools/abstractions that help him hide the sort of details and menial tasks that sap his strength. Force him to get up and go exercise or relax. Don't hold a nebulous infinishable to-do list over his head to guilt trip him-- he will come down off of his creative high and beat himself up for being irresonsible and may even shut down emotionally. Allow him to relate to people one at a time-- a hike with only one of the children, dates and activities without a big crowd. Don't take it personally when he absolutely dreads doing activities you think are "fun". Go stand by his desk until he gets that nagging little task done. Tell him things like, "if you don't get anything else done today, please look into x; it's really important to me." And no, he doesn't need all of a June Cleaver, a secretary, and a personal accountant-- he does need someone to play the part of a "coach", though. And someone that can organize some of the pesky details into something he can act on can be critical to this guy getting anything done.
Trying to assimilate all of the data... trying not to jump to premature conclusions.... Trying to be clear without being overly romantic or pessimistic....
I want a Jean Piaget to work out the experiments and pin down this further....
The first post on the topic was mostly negative-- with good reason.
If us slacker/failure/mad-genius types want to hold on to the fiction that there's a place for us somewhere, then please back off and let us fool ourselves about it for a while. Hey... it may inspire us to a turn over a new leaf and adapt to other people's needs a little more. (Until we get distracted by something else and then start blowing everybody off again....)
This is a very specific personality type that's just rare enough that all of them think they're the only ones. But given the number of "my god, you must be stalking me" responses... there may be enough of these guys out there that this merits investigation. Many of their problems are misdiagnosed as being due to something else. All of them are headed to a mental downswing or an epic failure of some sort and its critical that they understand themselves well enough that they can aid other people in directing/collaborating/steering them effectively.
I wouldn't necessarily be happy getting a high-powered hard-core ultra-geek development job. I don't want to have to move to the Big City (tm) and ignore my family.
Going "deep" would be fun... but strategically, going "wide" would be just as good.
As a developer, I'm irritated with my dependence on cranky and unsympathetic sysadmin types. The Unix Admin Cert here:
http://www.oreillyschool.com/certificates/
... would let me pin down a side of the business I'm less comfortable with... give me a cheap platform to run my own apps on... give me the skills to try a Unix solution when I want to try that as a Guerilla solution... and... maybe open the door to a different sort of job in a location that would be a better fit for me. Maybe.
So... not a better hat... just more hats.... "IT Guys" are always generalists anyway. Why try to be something I'm not when I have a perfectly good career (even if it's a little dull.)