I earned my Network+ cert last year for a DoD contracting gig. It was kind of nice to learn a few more port numbers, but wow: hours and hours of drilling cable

I earned my Network+ cert last year for a DoD contracting gig. It was kind of nice to learn a few more port numbers, but wow: hours and hours of drilling cable standards and telco protocols from the 1990s, fiber optic connectors, servers to authenticate users dialing into a modem pool, and their official steps to troubleshoot a problem. This was for web development work, but it was basically the only cert they'd accept unless I wanted to learn SAP. And it was all just flash card knowledge. I still couldn't set up a RADIUS server. In school I was very idealistic about learning: prioritizing understanding over grades---even a bit to my detriment. But forcing me to do pointless learning sure brought out my cynic. In one Sherlock Holmes story, Watson is appalled to learn that Holmes still thinks the sun revolves around the Earth. But Holmes resents this new fact. It clutters up his well-organized memory with useless trivia. He tells Watson he can't wait to forget it as soon as possible. I'm as eager as Holmes to forget all I learned. It kind of shakes my identity to see myself thinking that way. And it turns out the cert is only good for 3 years. Then I need to do it all over again. Or write 20 blog posts about networking and get them approved (for a fee I believe). I wonder if this explains some of the dumb tech blogs I see. Like others here, I've always felt certs were a more negative signal than positive. Mine is on my resume for now, but I'm a little embarrassed by it---how crazy is that?