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That managing projects require a combination of social ability > he can go into a room, he can sit in a cafeteria, and by the time he leaves the cafeteria, he

That managing projects require a combination of social ability > he can go into a room, he can sit in a cafeteria, and by the time he leaves the cafeteria, he knows half of the people. and ability to think technically/rationally > He earned a bachelor’s in math from Virginia Union and a bachelor’s in electrical engineering from Howard. ...to be able to carefully reason through what's required for a technical project, and get stakeholders on board.

wolverine876 4y ago
I don't doubt Robinson's technical ability at all, but the credential that matters is the track record at NASA. Bachelors degrees in math and EE don't signify much at all; plenty of irrational thinking and people in SV have better STEM degrees than that. Personally, I'd trust someone more if one of the degrees was in the humanities, showing an ability to deal with questions that aren't solvable with algorithms.
- ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
  My most brilliant engineer had a high school diploma. He regularly stunned the Ph.Ds in Japan, and they were no slouches.
  - vba616 4y ago
    Lewis Hamilton started karting at about 8 years old. I don't even follow F1; I guessed that, and Googled it to confirm, because that's how all race drivers start - let alone the best ever. It would be a different, and strange, world where people typically got to be professional drivers by taking out loans at 18 to buy brand new 500 hp sports cars and majoring in "Race Car Driving" at universities.
    - bigiain 4y ago
      Counter example, Max Biaggi. 3 times runner up in MotoGP (or 500cc), and 2 time World Superbike Champion. “ Biaggi was more interested in football as a child. But in 1989, after he was given a motorcycle for his seventeenth birthday, he began his racing career in the 125cc class at age eighteen.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Biaggi https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Biaggi Definitely not “typical”, but you don’t _have_ to be a child prodigy to be a world champion (motorcycle) racer. (Sadly, I suspect the one guaranteed indicator of world champion potential in motor racing is being a “rich kid”. )
      - vba616 4y ago
        Yes, "all" was an exaggeration. But "racing in the 125cc class" vs. the sort of person who begins on a liter bike sort of amounts to the same kind of dichotomy I was thinking of. People who have a career in one sport, may grow up playing a different sport, but they were still likely doing something that demanded endurance, strength, and coordination.
        bigiain 4y ago
        Yeah. I would suggest though, that the jump from “500hp sports car” to F1 is quite a lot bigger than 125cc GP bike (or Moto3 these days) to a premier class MotoGP (or 500cc GP) bike. Those things were tiny little jewels of pure race bike, a world apart from even my Cagiva Mito (125cc sports street bike). I’ve ridden a friends late 90s vintage Honda RS125 at a track day, and it’s such a joy to ride, beautifully precise - and way way more capable that I’ll ever be on a racetrack. I could match my own personal best lap times on my 900cc Ducati, but the club level racers could do 10 seconds a lap or so faster than me on their 125GP bikes, and the GP riders from 5 or 6 years earlier when the World Championship ran on the same track were almost 10 seconds faster in races than the club guys.
        vba616 4y ago
        Originally, I was making an analogy to ordinary people, who become mundane professionals. People don't normally start learning to read, write, or program in undergraduate classes. "the jump from “500hp sports car” to F1 is quite a lot bigger..." is what I was trying to say; someone imagining a career pipeline might point out that the power level is numerically closer, but in fact, that doesn't capture the proximity.
        simonh 4y ago
        In fact I’d agree and go even further. I expect driving a sports car on the road is no preparation for GP driving whatsoever. Seriously, go cart racing is a thousand times closer.
  - motoboi 4y ago
    Yeah, but can he make decisions with incomplete information in the middle of department fights being aware of backstabbing? This is what put projects on track again.
    - ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
      That was my job. I was his manager.
  - Spooky23 4y ago
    The smartest programmer I ever worked with was a musician by education. He ended up building an open source app in a few months that attracted a bunch of attention and moved into a big FANG type company doing development.
WastingMyTime89 4y ago
> …to be able to carefully reason through what's required for a technical project, and get stakeholders on board. You don’t really have to do that anymore once you are a program director. There are people under you who do. You need a lot of experience with how projects are managed and how work packages interact however and I don’t really see how you can get that if you didn’t do a job where you actually had to carefully reason through what’s required before.

wolverine876 4y ago

I don't doubt Robinson's technical ability at all, but the credential that matters is the track record at NASA. Bachelors degrees in math and EE don't signify much at all; plenty of irrational thinking and people in SV have better STEM degrees than that. Personally, I'd trust someone more if one of the degrees was in the humanities, showing an ability to deal with questions that aren't solvable with algorithms.

ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
My most brilliant engineer had a high school diploma. He regularly stunned the Ph.Ds in Japan, and they were no slouches.
- vba616 4y ago
  Lewis Hamilton started karting at about 8 years old. I don't even follow F1; I guessed that, and Googled it to confirm, because that's how all race drivers start - let alone the best ever. It would be a different, and strange, world where people typically got to be professional drivers by taking out loans at 18 to buy brand new 500 hp sports cars and majoring in "Race Car Driving" at universities.
  - bigiain 4y ago
    Counter example, Max Biaggi. 3 times runner up in MotoGP (or 500cc), and 2 time World Superbike Champion. “ Biaggi was more interested in football as a child. But in 1989, after he was given a motorcycle for his seventeenth birthday, he began his racing career in the 125cc class at age eighteen.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Biaggi https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Biaggi Definitely not “typical”, but you don’t _have_ to be a child prodigy to be a world champion (motorcycle) racer. (Sadly, I suspect the one guaranteed indicator of world champion potential in motor racing is being a “rich kid”. )
    - vba616 4y ago
      Yes, "all" was an exaggeration. But "racing in the 125cc class" vs. the sort of person who begins on a liter bike sort of amounts to the same kind of dichotomy I was thinking of. People who have a career in one sport, may grow up playing a different sport, but they were still likely doing something that demanded endurance, strength, and coordination.
      - bigiain 4y ago
        Yeah. I would suggest though, that the jump from “500hp sports car” to F1 is quite a lot bigger than 125cc GP bike (or Moto3 these days) to a premier class MotoGP (or 500cc GP) bike. Those things were tiny little jewels of pure race bike, a world apart from even my Cagiva Mito (125cc sports street bike). I’ve ridden a friends late 90s vintage Honda RS125 at a track day, and it’s such a joy to ride, beautifully precise - and way way more capable that I’ll ever be on a racetrack. I could match my own personal best lap times on my 900cc Ducati, but the club level racers could do 10 seconds a lap or so faster than me on their 125GP bikes, and the GP riders from 5 or 6 years earlier when the World Championship ran on the same track were almost 10 seconds faster in races than the club guys.
        vba616 4y ago
        Originally, I was making an analogy to ordinary people, who become mundane professionals. People don't normally start learning to read, write, or program in undergraduate classes. "the jump from “500hp sports car” to F1 is quite a lot bigger..." is what I was trying to say; someone imagining a career pipeline might point out that the power level is numerically closer, but in fact, that doesn't capture the proximity.
        simonh 4y ago
        In fact I’d agree and go even further. I expect driving a sports car on the road is no preparation for GP driving whatsoever. Seriously, go cart racing is a thousand times closer.
- motoboi 4y ago
  Yeah, but can he make decisions with incomplete information in the middle of department fights being aware of backstabbing? This is what put projects on track again.
  - ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
    That was my job. I was his manager.
- Spooky23 4y ago
  The smartest programmer I ever worked with was a musician by education. He ended up building an open source app in a few months that attracted a bunch of attention and moved into a big FANG type company doing development.

WastingMyTime89 4y ago

> …to be able to carefully reason through what's required for a technical project, and get stakeholders on board. You don’t really have to do that anymore once you are a program director. There are people under you who do. You need a lot of experience with how projects are managed and how work packages interact however and I don’t really see how you can get that if you didn’t do a job where you actually had to carefully reason through what’s required before.