[SWLUG] Very strange!

[Carter N.]

Hi All,

Rhys and Gareth have raised an interesting and important issue on
documentation. Extending the debate:

>> more. There's way too much hot air in the world and way too many civil 
>> servants pumping it out!
>You've obviously never worked on anything safety-critical.

I see merit in both sides. Few would argue that it's important for the docs
of safety-critical systems to be unambiguous and comprehensive. On the other
hand, documents that are verbose or dry (or both), can be daunting. In the
real world of deadlines, massive and/or complex projects, engineers might be
tempted to skimp on their reading efforts. So, to encourage thorough
reading, brevity and clarity are vital.

>In his CV he said he was an expert in TCP/IP. He was asked about the TCP/IP
>sliding window, which he knew nothing about, but rather than admit he
didn't
>know about it, he blustered on

Heh! One neglected interview skill is the art of acknowledging, in a
positive manner, that one doesn't have all the answers. (Presumably one
always knows, instead, how/where to find the answer!) I hope there's no
shame in not having all the answers, or I'll never achieve expert status!

Someone once said that "Knowledge is knowing what you know, whilst wisdom is
knowing what you *don't* know", or words to that effect. I take great solace
in that proverb ;-)

Cheers,

Neil
--------------------------------------------
Neil Carter            Psychology Department
IT Technician    University of Wales Swansea
                       Wales, United Kingdom

http://psy.swansea.ac.uk/staff/Carter/