The Oil Drum

36 comments on The solutions to the problem are not always simple

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PaulS on September 23, 2005 - 6:59am

"If I'd known how competent..."

Absolutely: the social attitudes and dodgy degrees are not necessarily exclusive to particular subjects. It's a fairly safe bet that some of those responsible - at each and every level of government - for the hurricane-related failures held very expensive MBA or Finance degrees. And even "hard" degrees like Computer Science don't necessarily guarantee competence these days.

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ericy on September 23, 2005 - 8:56am

There is a huge difference between a person who is "book smart" and a person who will be productive in the real world. In my current field (CS), lots of people come out of school with horrible problem solving skills, and couldn't think outside of the box if their lives depended upon it. They apparently managed to pass their classes simply by rote memorization, and have trouble stepping back and getting the big picture.

I have had many discussions with people about whether problem solving is an inate ability, or whether it is something that can be learned. We have never really come up with a satisfactory answer, but tend to lead towards the "inate ability".

I imagine it to be the same in many other fields. People who can merely learn by rote, and parrot stuff back are always going to be at the bottom rungs. Some recognize their limitations and become managers (the pointy-haired boss) :-).

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step back on September 23, 2005 - 12:22pm

It is much worse than that ericy.

I was a working stiff engineer (hardware/software interfaces) for many years. Then I "defected" and went into a field where adherence to the laws of Mother Nature is not required. All you have to do is "persuade" other humans in order to consider yourself as being "successful".

Most of our "modern" society (Adam Smith society) is based on one human being B.S.ing another human being.

Many of us negotiate "fair" prices for stuff. Very few human beings do "real" stuff anymore in the USA. We are all virtual. Your plumber deals with the real stuff, and your other craftsmen do too. However, very often you will run across massive populations of people where no one knows how to pick up a screwdriver and turn it in the right direction or what makes the car "go".

In the computer field, I am astounded by how many practitioners do not understand that their "code" is usless unless there is physical hardware to execute it. We have each become so "specialized" as Adam Smith suggested we do, to the point that we are clueless as to how the world comes together into an operative whole. It all seems to happen by "magic". After a while, we and the bozzos we put in the White House start believing in "magic" and "intelligent design". We/They have no clue. How sad.