3 ms·

Eh, it seems to me that if he knows how to do well /without/ a formal education, he may be in a position where he knows more than most people about what parts o

by lsc 16y ago

Eh, it seems to me that if he knows how to do well /without/ a formal education, he may be in a position where he knows more than most people about what parts of 'education' are important, and which parts are not.

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
sliverstorm 16y ago
Well, at least in his field of expertise. Different fields depend on education in different ways. Really, what he was best at as I gather is summed up by this: After reading the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics that demonstrated the Altair 8800, Gates contacted Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), the creators of the new microcomputer, to inform them that he and others were working on a BASIC interpreter for the platform. In reality, Gates and Allen did not have an Altair and had not written code for it; they merely wanted to gauge MITS's interest. MITS president Ed Roberts agreed to meet them for a demo, and over the course of a few weeks they developed an Altair emulator that ran on a minicomputer, and then the BASIC interpreter. The demonstration, held at MITS's offices in Albuquerque, was a success and resulted in a deal with MITS to distribute the interpreter as Altair BASIC
- lsc 16y ago
  right. my point was that gates is clearly /very good/ at something. I mean, from what I read, he's no slouch as a computer guy, either, I mean, how often are projects like that delivered on time? Sure, he made a dishonest claim about what he had, but when called on it, he delivered.
  - Ardit20 16y ago
    While his point is that he was in some degree lucky and gained success by writing one code. Sure that might have not been easy back then, it might have required some intelligence, but it hardly makes him qualified to know much about education.
    - lsc 16y ago
      if becoming successful doesn't qualify you to design processes to make other people successful, what does?
      - Ardit20 16y ago
        Adopting the scientific methods to how people become successful. Just because I might be intelligent I can't quite tell someone how to be intelligent. A scientist might be able to however if he does a lot of studies and is able to derive rules etc. Besides, he is not serially successful, as in build one company and move on to the next, or successful in business, politics, history, medicine, physics. He just wrote one code. As I say sure it took some wits from him to make the deal and intelligence to write the code, but that in no way makes him qualified to know much about education, which is such an extensive topic. And yes he was a drop out hence his genius idea of accrediting any knowledge however it was gained. If someone has some knowledge there are other ways to prove it to others than through accreditation. We have I think enough pieces of paper which misleads people as to our ability.
        lsc 16y ago
        if one needs formal education to have an opinion on education, why are you talking to me? I didn't go to school either. My point is just that school can't be the only qualifier for knowing about education- unless the point of education is to make people good at school. >And yes he was a drop out hence his genius idea of accrediting any knowledge however it was gained. If someone has some knowledge there are other ways to prove it to others than through accreditation. We have I think enough pieces of paper which misleads people as to our ability. I think most people agree that most certifications are garbage. However, most degrees aren't any better, when it comes to accrediting that a person has a particular skill. It's a hard problem that isn't being solved well by anyone right now. the thing is, a college degree doesn't say anything about the ability of a person to do a particular job, and people in industry recognize this. But the idea that you could have a certifying agency say that joe is a level 5 unix Engineer is very attractive to companies... a good certification system would make hiring people way easier. The problem is that certification is one of those things that's easy to do badly and extremely difficult to do well.
- mkramlich 16y ago
  talk about doing Lean Development and MVP back in 1975. Pitch a product idea. If no interest, move on. But if interest, go build it, then sell it, profit!

by lsc 16y ago

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

sliverstorm 16y ago

Well, at least in his field of expertise. Different fields depend on education in different ways. Really, what he was best at as I gather is summed up by this: After reading the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics that demonstrated the Altair 8800, Gates contacted Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), the creators of the new microcomputer, to inform them that he and others were working on a BASIC interpreter for the platform. In reality, Gates and Allen did not have an Altair and had not written code for it; they merely wanted to gauge MITS's interest. MITS president Ed Roberts agreed to meet them for a demo, and over the course of a few weeks they developed an Altair emulator that ran on a minicomputer, and then the BASIC interpreter. The demonstration, held at MITS's offices in Albuquerque, was a success and resulted in a deal with MITS to distribute the interpreter as Altair BASIC

lsc 16y ago
right. my point was that gates is clearly /very good/ at something. I mean, from what I read, he's no slouch as a computer guy, either, I mean, how often are projects like that delivered on time? Sure, he made a dishonest claim about what he had, but when called on it, he delivered.
- Ardit20 16y ago
  While his point is that he was in some degree lucky and gained success by writing one code. Sure that might have not been easy back then, it might have required some intelligence, but it hardly makes him qualified to know much about education.
  - lsc 16y ago
    if becoming successful doesn't qualify you to design processes to make other people successful, what does?
    - Ardit20 16y ago
      Adopting the scientific methods to how people become successful. Just because I might be intelligent I can't quite tell someone how to be intelligent. A scientist might be able to however if he does a lot of studies and is able to derive rules etc. Besides, he is not serially successful, as in build one company and move on to the next, or successful in business, politics, history, medicine, physics. He just wrote one code. As I say sure it took some wits from him to make the deal and intelligence to write the code, but that in no way makes him qualified to know much about education, which is such an extensive topic. And yes he was a drop out hence his genius idea of accrediting any knowledge however it was gained. If someone has some knowledge there are other ways to prove it to others than through accreditation. We have I think enough pieces of paper which misleads people as to our ability.
      - lsc 16y ago
        if one needs formal education to have an opinion on education, why are you talking to me? I didn't go to school either. My point is just that school can't be the only qualifier for knowing about education- unless the point of education is to make people good at school. >And yes he was a drop out hence his genius idea of accrediting any knowledge however it was gained. If someone has some knowledge there are other ways to prove it to others than through accreditation. We have I think enough pieces of paper which misleads people as to our ability. I think most people agree that most certifications are garbage. However, most degrees aren't any better, when it comes to accrediting that a person has a particular skill. It's a hard problem that isn't being solved well by anyone right now. the thing is, a college degree doesn't say anything about the ability of a person to do a particular job, and people in industry recognize this. But the idea that you could have a certifying agency say that joe is a level 5 unix Engineer is very attractive to companies... a good certification system would make hiring people way easier. The problem is that certification is one of those things that's easy to do badly and extremely difficult to do well.
mkramlich 16y ago
talk about doing Lean Development and MVP back in 1975. Pitch a product idea. If no interest, move on. But if interest, go build it, then sell it, profit!