I am not qualified to comment on most of the sciences, be they astronomy, botany, entomology or whatchamcallogy. That never stopped me from commenting on them before, though, nor would it in the future.
I am qualified to comment on computer technology or IT or MIS or whatever you call it; a nut by any other name is still what goes at the other end of a bolt.
I've been meeting a lot of my 'peers' over the years. I quoted the word as most of them no longer fit the definition of the word. Sure, they started around the same time as I did or a bit later. The ones who started earlier are those whom I consider beneath myself. Why?
Why is a great question. It's a good question at most times but a great one here.
I manage technology developers the same as they do but there the similarities end. My 'peers' are old and, for the most part, getting fat salaries for overseeing technology and work that they really have no inkling of. Their work could be done as well or as badly by anyone who comes from chemical engineering, culinary or accounting background. Well, perhaps not accounting.
Sit for no more than five minutes with one of them and ask for details of the currently ongoing work. Chances are that a junior programmer would be called in or, better yet, the topic suspended for tea and crumpets. The typical IT manager of today doesn't know the difference between a charge coupled device and a petabyte even though the first are all around us and the second would be commonly available by end of 2011. (Blush if you had to Google for the terms.)
The IT industry changes faster than any other. New ideas, new designs, new paradigms and new languages rise overnight. The types of requirements change along with technology and the solutions become ever more exotic by the day. No one five years ago would have asked for a cellphone application to drive a car using Bluetooth. Yet when everyone saw Bond's Nokia Communicator do just that they whistled thru their teeth. Those few who had access to a Communicator, spare car and lots of soldering wire went ahead and actually built one. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m4ERvAtP6s
IT managers of today complain that all their time is taken up in administration but they is not quite accurate. A truer fact is that most of their time is spent in administration. That is because they have fallen so out of touch with what they once may have had command over that they are embarrassed to talk details and would rather spend time making budgets, Pert charts and discussing risk profile methodologies.
On the other hand, it is these same people who sign their names to project timelines, efficiency reports and acceptance tests. How anyone can do that without knowing why the JSON call from the Ajax popup was what caused the buffer overrun in the first place, is beyond me.
Just today, one IT manager of a client asked for data import using CSV files but didn't know how to save a worksheet in CSV format. I had made a policy for myself not to rip off people's heads, jump on their carcasses and shout: You moron! I think I shall have to rethink the wisdom of that policy. A few well-mangled carcasses and people would stop spouting utter hogwash around me. It would still be hogwash, mind you, it just won't be utter hogwash.
Since I started working as one, publishers started sending me magazine with titles such as 'CIO' and 'Technology Today'. I've asked everyone to not let me see them any more and throw them in the trash as soon as they come in. Such publications are written for those who once knew what level 77 and 88 declaration in COBOL were by those who flunked out of diploma courses in Computer Science.
There are remedies for most afflictions but ignorance in the field of IT has none. The only viable option is to change to something that requires no real knowledge such as human resource management, sales or accounting. That way you make space for the up and coming youngster whom you hand-picked and groomed. Keep telling yourself that. Actually the youngster is the one whom you could not drag down to your level of ignorance.
In parting, I offer my gratitude to those who stuck with my rambling to read the post so far. Whether you smile condescendingly or scowl in annoyance think about this tonight before you go to bed: Do you really know if the purchase requisition you approved for a SWF profiler is needed or did the designer think it cool to have one?
