3 ms·
Being able to contextualize such data and such facts into actionable knowledge or wisdom is definitely a facet of expertise. It takes a different sort of expert
by sqeaky 2y ago
Being able to contextualize such data and such facts into actionable knowledge or wisdom is definitely a facet of expertise. It takes a different sort of expertise, some kind of communication expertise, to interject the need for actual study or research in the space.
In my career I have many times been asked to understand a system and to evaluate it and come back with an explanation to the non-technical. The first few times I made no accommodations for cost or support planning. And when asked how much such a thing would cost I inevitably gave wrong answers based on sticker prices or cost of hardware or something similarly trivial. Today I'm always evaluating systems I work in in terms of technician and expert hours in addition to the cost of the things we purchased for them to work on.
If somehow I were surprised today and asked to give a price of standing up such a system, I would know enough to say I need to do some review and formal planning. I would staunchly, but politely, refuse to give up any numbers and say that I can come back with a detailed plan with itemized costs after I actually write down all my notes because even after having worked and software for 20 or more years there are just too many little details that can add a million dollars to a project. After having bought such time I would write down all my thoughts and gather all my notes and look around for things I missed. Then provide such costs and benefits to the bean counters in the only language they all speak dollars, and I would be sure not to put a single number for any field they would all be ranges possible minimums and maximums. And I've been asked why they are ranges in the past, and those help to articulate uncertainty. That is another whole discussion but people who don't work with the technology often don't understand the uncertainty that come from these very certain, digital, and predictable machines.