Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>
> I hope there will be more takers to this potentially interesting and
> mind-stimulating discussion. My supervisor argues that system architecture
> is the future. Being able to assemble bits of technology in the most
> cost-effective way is a valuable skill that needs you to be aware of and
> familiar with many packages. This, unlike software development (my
> undergraduate degree is in Software Engineering), is likely to endure as the
> expenses (lack thereof) of duplicating high-quality software become better
> understood and therefore they propel a shift in skills and requirements.
> This is in some ways a renaissance that resembles what computing was like
> decades ago. People will build their own large systems (servers) to serve
> clients. Software as a Service (SaaS) or Service-oriented Architecture (SOA)
> is what you must keep in mind as your long-term goal/vocation. While it
> involves a great deal of hacking and tweaking (programming), it does not
> involves some of the skills that colleges still focus on (sometimes
> blindly).
>
Roy makes the mistake of considering computers as an end point rather
than the means to an end that they have become. People used to write
their papers with a pen or pencil or used a typewriter. Today they use
a computer, but the expression of ideas is still the end goal and the
computer is nothing more than a means to address media. Engineers used
to design bridges by laborious calculations done by hand, then by
calculators and computers and now by CAD programs that encapsulate the
expertise that is still at the root of any bridge building to be done.
In the 80s IBM and Microsoft added tremendous momentum to the use of
computers in a personal way. Apple had made some headway, too,
particularly among the scientific and engineering community. IBM
brought the revolution to the clerks of the world and there are a lot
more of them than engineers. Microsoft understood that a PC was an
appliance and the user only needed to know how to do things on a macro
level.
Don't study computers, study what needs to be done to make the world a
better place. You can probably use a computer along the way.
|
|
