3 ms·

This is such a valuable skill. For our work we've found this ability to google or find answers without incredibly specific step by step instructions to be lacki

This is such a valuable skill. For our work we've found this ability to google or find answers without incredibly specific step by step instructions to be lacking from many younger workers. I've wondered if others have found this for many smart people under 30 as well?

hinkley 7y ago
I really believe there are too many important things to know at this point, and so I instead concentrate on memorizing the bounds of the Realm of the Possible. I know what my tools can do, I know where the pitfalls are, but I don't always recall the exact details of those boundaries. I often have to look up why, and I'm perfectly okay with that. Where that doesn't work well is in interviews, and in places where people think it's perfectly reasonable to have technical discussion meetings where laptops are banned. We're really going to make architectural decisions without looking at any code? Who thought that was a good idea?
perl4ever 7y ago
I'm old enough to be covered by age discrimination laws and think I'm better than a lot of people at finding things, and I believe a key reason is that Google deliberately, and perhaps many other types of search accidentally, tries to turn every search into a few results from a single cluster. The only way you can find a different cluster a lot of times is by already knowing it exists, or knowing that the garbage cluster you get is garbage and then you can modify your search terms, or read additional pages of results. What experience provides is not knowing everything about everything, but the meta-knowledge whether there is an answer out there, and whether you've found it yet. Inexperience results in stopping too soon in your search, either giving up or settling for something flawed. Really, who can expect people to solve the halting problem fresh out of college?

3 ms·

This is such a valuable skill. For our work we've found this ability to google or find answers without incredibly specific step by step instructions to be lacki

by dillondoyle 7y ago

hinkley 7y ago
I really believe there are too many important things to know at this point, and so I instead concentrate on memorizing the bounds of the Realm of the Possible. I know what my tools can do, I know where the pitfalls are, but I don't always recall the exact details of those boundaries. I often have to look up why, and I'm perfectly okay with that. Where that doesn't work well is in interviews, and in places where people think it's perfectly reasonable to have technical discussion meetings where laptops are banned. We're really going to make architectural decisions without looking at any code? Who thought that was a good idea?
perl4ever 7y ago
I'm old enough to be covered by age discrimination laws and think I'm better than a lot of people at finding things, and I believe a key reason is that Google deliberately, and perhaps many other types of search accidentally, tries to turn every search into a few results from a single cluster. The only way you can find a different cluster a lot of times is by already knowing it exists, or knowing that the garbage cluster you get is garbage and then you can modify your search terms, or read additional pages of results. What experience provides is not knowing everything about everything, but the meta-knowledge whether there is an answer out there, and whether you've found it yet. Inexperience results in stopping too soon in your search, either giving up or settling for something flawed. Really, who can expect people to solve the halting problem fresh out of college?