>> So if you know what a Polish reversed list is, you should also be
>> familiar with various political figures? How does that work?
>
>  Do you know how Bill Gates is? Do you know who Steve Jobs is? Do you know
> who Donald Knuth is?

Yes.

>  You should know who Richard Stallman is.

No.  But I looked up his website and decided I don't like him anyway. ;-)

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Warp wrote:
> Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>> Isn't that like saying if you know how a magnet works, you should know 
>> who Tesla is?
> 
>   No. It's like saying that you are a physicist and don't know who
> Nikola Tesla is.

Interesting. I had no idea that being an expert in a given subject 
involves knowing anything about its history or the people who invented it...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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And lo on Thu, 17 Jan 2008 11:48:29 -0000, Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> did  
spake, saying:

> Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>> Isn't that like saying if you know how a magnet works, you should know
>> who Tesla is?
>
>   No. It's like saying that you are a physicist and don't know who
> Nikola Tesla is.

Wasn't he the guy on the Russian side in Command & Conquer that ran those  
electrical defence towers? :-)

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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On Thu, 17 Jan 2008 12:50:17 +0000, Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:

>
>Interesting. I had no idea that being an expert in a given subject 
>involves knowing anything about its history or the people who invented it...

That is one of the failings of our education system. You don't need to let it
hold you back tho'.

Regards
	Stephen

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> Wasn't he the guy on the Russian side in Command & Conquer that ran those 
> electrical defence towers? :-)

No I think he just got a kick out of being charged by them.  I preferred 
Tanja.

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478f4f0a@news.povray.org...

> Interesting. I had no idea that being an expert in a given subject 
> involves knowing anything about its history or the people who invented 
> it...

An expert is expected to know about his/her field of expertise beyond the 
mere nuts and bolts so that that person can give informed advice. The 
history of a trade is part of that, but knowing history is also a proof of 
intellectual curiosity. Experts who are so narrow-minded that they can't 
reason beyond the immediate issues don't make good experts, or even good 
professionals.

G.

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>> Interesting. I had no idea that being an expert in a given subject 
>> involves knowing anything about its history or the people who invented 
>> it...
> 
> An expert is expected to know about his/her field of expertise beyond the 
> mere nuts and bolts so that that person can give informed advice. The 
> history of a trade is part of that, but knowing history is also a proof of 
> intellectual curiosity. Experts who are so narrow-minded that they can't 
> reason beyond the immediate issues don't make good experts, or even good 
> professionals.

History has never been something that really interests me, that's all.

I mean, apparently every positive integer is the product of a unique 
sequence of prime numbers. That's a pretty fascinating fact. I don't 
really care who discovered this or how, but the fact itself is pretty 
fascinating.

Mathematics fascinates me; the people who made these discoveries are 
rather irrelevant. Similarly for computers, physics, and many other 
things...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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478f6de5$1@news.povray.org...

> History has never been something that really interests me, that's all.

Well, perhaps you should expand your horizons a little bit. Knowing how 
things came to be is more than often very illuminating, even from a personal 
perspective. You're missing a lot.

Of course, from a professional perspective, be very careful about displaying 
your ignorance of trade matters. An employer just looking for some anonymous 
codemonkey may not care, but if you're looking for something a little more 
ambitious, not knowing who Steve Jobs and RMS are could be downright lethal 
in an interview, because it would reveal a deep lack of curiosity and 
interest *** in your own trade ***. For instance, not knowing about Stallman 
means that you never wondered and read about open source software licenses 
and the world of issues surrounding them. Not knowing about Steve Jobs means 
that you never got remotely interested and read anything about Apple 
software and hardware, even in mainstream newspapers.

Nothing wrong with that of course, but even if these particular points 
wouldn't interest me as an employer, I'd be wondering about the many other 
basic trade issues you'd be ignorant and unwilling to learn about, and that 
would drastically decrease your employability - once I'd picked my jaw up 
from the floor and sent a witty note my coworkers about the strange chap who 
just left my office ;)

G.

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Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> I mean, apparently every positive integer is the product of a unique
> sequence of prime numbers. That's a pretty fascinating fact. I don't
> really care who discovered this or how, but the fact itself is pretty
> fascinating.

from there on it seems you doesn't bother either how they've come up with such
discovery in the first place.  Yes, that's how we learn:  by ignoring errors
and just accounting successes... *sarcasm off*

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Gilles Tran <gil### [at] agroparistechfr> wrote:
> Of course, from a professional perspective, be very careful about displaying 
> your ignorance of trade matters. An employer just looking for some anonymous 
> codemonkey may not care, but if you're looking for something a little more 
> ambitious, not knowing who Steve Jobs and RMS are could be downright lethal 
> in an interview, because it would reveal a deep lack of curiosity and 
> interest *** in your own trade ***. For instance, not knowing about Stallman 
> means that you never wondered and read about open source software licenses 
> and the world of issues surrounding them. Not knowing about Steve Jobs means 
> that you never got remotely interested and read anything about Apple 
> software and hardware, even in mainstream newspapers.

  You make an excellent point. I wholeheartedly agree with this.
I couldn't have said it better myself.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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