Well, this could become a very long, rambling discussion if I lay out all my thinking but given the recent propensity of list members to wish to focus on specific technical issues, I'll keep my response here brief. Happy to pursue this off-list if you like, though, Erik!
In more than 25 years in the software business, I've met perhaps six people I would say could do both. I have two basic theories (and lots of corrollaries; see above). First, it takes a different mind set to program than it does to teach programming. Maybe even conflicting skills. Specialization takes place at some point. It's sort of like the question of why major league pitchers, who were uniformly the best hitters all the way through college, suddenly can't hit. (Like all analogies, incomplete, but....) Second, by the time you get really good at a programming language, you forget what was hard to learn because you've assimilated it. It's now sublimated thought. I saw this over and over again during my years as an expert system consultant and designer. The subject-matter expert was almost helpless to explain the basic ideas of his or her craft. Most of the folks I know who teach a programming language are average or a little better programmers in that language. In fact, right now sitting here I can only think of three people who are both really good programmers and really good teacher/trainer/tutor/mentor types in those languages. On 3/24/06, Erik Hansen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > --- Dan Shafer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > > It's a rare bird who can > > both consult and teach/train > > why is that? > > Erik Hansen > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.erikhansen.org > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around > http://mail.yahoo.com > _______________________________________________ > use-revolution mailing list > [email protected] > Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your > subscription preferences: > http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution > -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dan Shafer, Information Product Consultant and Author http://www.shafermedia.com Get my book, "Revolution: Software at the Speed of Thought" >From http://www.shafermediastore.com/tech_main.html _______________________________________________ use-revolution mailing list [email protected] Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
