Arrogant expert nominations!

[frankgw@adelphia.net]

First let me recommend "The New Millennium: It's about time" article starting on page 17 of the January 2000 issue of Midrange Computing magazine titled "Fast-forward: Experts' Predictions for the New Millenium". However, Rares Pateanu is a very arrogant expert! Here are a couple of quotes from him found on page 20. 1) "A smart, well-educated professional will pick up platform and language issues in no time" 2) "I feel that anyone who cannot pick up the AS/400 specifics (or RPG, for that matter) in a couple of months is not worth hiring anyway." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Irresponsible remarks like this contribute to the frequent unrealistic expectations and demands placed on IT types by general management types. I, for one, challenge anyone to become an AS/400 platform expert within a couple of months. There is far more to the AS/400 than what can be learned in that time period. Likewise, I challenge anyone to become even an average AS/400 RPG programmer in that time period. There is simply too much to learn and too much experience to gain within a mere two months. Rares, give us a break. Your irresponsible quoted statements only widen the communications gulf between general management and IT types. I would be a lot more impressed with your expertise, if you would put it to good use by saying things that would improve the notorious communication problems between IT and other folks. Perhaps you have not spent enough time in the trenches. ----------------------------------------------------- O.K. guys - am I being too tough on Rares? What are your thoughts? Do you have your own examples of expert arrogance to share with us?

[Guest.Visitor]

I tend to agree with you Frank that this statement by Rares probably should have been given more thought. Everyone learns different parts of any system, language, business process at different rates at different times. If they didn't, we'd have nothing but clones (my apologies to Dolly the sheep). Know one knows it all or can be expected to, and sometimes it's too easy (tempting?) to take the easy potshots in print.

[Guest.Visitor]

I read Rares' remarks differently. I hear him saying that skills transfer is not all the different between either platforms or languages: the basic processes remain the same. I hear him defending the professional against the dillitant -- the true professional systems or programming professional against the spread-sheet "slam dunk!" guru. And I hear him defending the AS/400 -- that neither the platform or the language are limitations, but the quality of the people and the commitment of the organization to embrace change. But I understand your remark that too often the real problems facing IT are invisible to both management and users alike, and that the expectations that "Hey! It's a slam dunk!" create an unrealistic expectation that is doomed to failure.

[Guest.Visitor]

I'm perhaps as guilty as anyone else of exhibiting NIH (not invented here) symptoms, but the worst example that I can remember was a firm using a System/36 about 16 years ago where a supervisor overlooked my code, and then insisted I code a certain way. The certain way that was demanded of me was to use sorts and matching records, instead of chains. I cut my contract short after three months, and shortly thereafter the firm went out of business. Dave

[Guest.Visitor]

This is a little off track, but three Dallas-Fort Worth area organizations in succession have gone out of business in the last several years. Each had the same MIS director at the time of their demise. This MIS director would only consider running the 400 in 36 mode with old, old applications which she carried from place to place. This person also happened to be the most arrogant individual I have ever run into; she literally re-coded every program anyone ever brought to her. I understand her current employer is in trouble over Y2K, big time.

[Guest.Visitor]

I agree with you wholeheartidly, having had to deal with trainees who had just come off a 2 month intensive AS/400 developement course which is generally accepted as the best in the UK. We then had to explain how few subfiles they'd acctually be coding and teach them OPNQRYF which was only skirted around. I still remember my first RPG introduction and thinking, "Urgh positional based!" The language has evovled a bit, but is still pretty ugly. Also RPG is just the tip of the iceberg we also need to understand so many other things which go to give the AS/400 it's strength. So I too will put money against someone becoming a skill AS/400 deveoper in 2 weeks, even 2 months. Maybe after 2 years, but then only if they're involved in the full developement of systems and not forced to focus on a small area as so often happens in a large shop.

[Guest.Visitor]

I was delighted by Rares Pateanu's comments. Especially, "What matters is the ability to think and to design the best solution." I wish more of my programming colleagues would think; instead they just want to copy my code. The university computer science education is a wonderful privilege! I am eternally grateful for it.

[T.Holt]

This is a little off track, but three Dallas-Fort Worth area organizations in succession have gone out of business in the last several years. Each had the same MIS director at the time of their demise.

---

This reminds me of an old joke. It seems a guy was being interviewed for a job, and the interviewer asked him if he was a responsible person. The applicant replied, "Yes, sir, indeed I am. The last three places I worked lost a lot of money, and in each case, they said I was responsible!"

[Guest.Visitor]

"What matters is the ability to think and to design the best solution." I wish more of my programming colleagues would think; instead they just want to copy my code. Quote Gene Gaunt. ____________________ Yes, absolutely Gene ! But there are (imho) at least two groups of people involved in the development of (for instance) an application : the people who design the solution and the people who build/implement it. If one has enough IT-experience it should not be a problem to come up with a solution, regardless of the platform. In my opinion building and implementing such a solution DOES require expertise of the specific platform. This is something you do not learn in three months because you need to gain experience. You learn most from your mistakes, you also find out what you still have to learn that way... BTW : When I worked for ol' Big Blue they trained 12 young people for three months at one of the best trainingcentres here in Holland and put them to work at the helpdesk. Guess what ? All of those(very intelligent) people could configure ClientAccess/400 but they didn't know what to do if it didn't work ! When it came to simple system-tuning they did not understand the internals of the AS/400. The could not interpret the WRKSYSSTS-display,pools, memory-allocation, active->wait, the works... We lost half of them within 2 months... That's the difference between three months of training and years of experience. I think that the first person who ever said that IT was easy should have his/her head checked. Wait, let me rephrase that : I think Anyone who says IT is easy should have their head checked. Perhaps I lost the scope of the article a bit, sorry, always get carried away by these topics... Kind regards, Rob.

[Guest.Visitor]

First, I must appologize for responding so late, but I was not following this forum. Folks at Midrange alerted me to this posting, so here I am, on the strength of the principle "better later than never". I am sory if my comments were perceived as arrogant. As someone who spent almost 10 years in IBM on the AS/400, I do understand what it takes to become an expert, but that was not my point. While RPG is an AS/400 specific language, there is a lot more available on the platform. A COBOL, Pascal, C, Fortran or Java programmer will indeed require very little training to be able to program in a reasonably efficient manner on the AS/400 in those languages. As you get into tuning an AS/400, making it a web or Domino server, setting up communications, etc, you will need increasing knowledge. My statement was not referring to those types of activities, and more importantly, was not referring to becoming an expert. But when we hire people, we don't hire only experts. And yes, I do know quite a few people who having mastered the fundamentals of programming, can pick up a language in 2 months, including RPG. Again, not to the expert level, but to the point where they can write a decent program, and be productive. I have spent over 20 years in this industry (not counting my university years) and I am running out of fingers to count the platforms I worked on. The reason I survived all those changes is because although there are many ways to skin a cat, it is still a cat after all. At the end of the day, I believe that a lot of those who complain about the lack of AS/400 skills, would be surprised at what can be achieved by hiring some bright individuals, who are good programers and more importantly good analysts, and teach them about the strengths of this wonderful platform.