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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">I’d like to gently disagree with this one statement, leaving the rest for others to worry about:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""> PLUG-discuss [mailto:plug-discuss-bounces@lists.phxlinux.org]
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Stephen Partington<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, January 23, 2018 7:12 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> Main PLUG discussion list<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: Trent's projects<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""></span><span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">…</span><span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"">.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"">Schooling is best for people who have no idea where to start in an industry they have interest in. And there are some roles that strongly benefit from a degree, and others that I feel
require a degree. There are other roles that lend themselves better to on the job training with supplementary education (certification courses and the like).</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">First, a bit about me.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">I was recently told ‘oh, just shut it off’. They were referring to the fact that I’m always thinking, always problem solving. They thought that was something I could turn off. No, that’s something I am, not
something I do. So, I did all I could, which was keep it to myself.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">When I started high school, I had my career all figured out – I was going in to electronics. So, I took the most advanced electronics class they had in my high school. (Now, by this time I’d already built a
heathkit oscilloscope and other such things, so this class was… well, not very helpful)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">I realized pretty quickly into the year that I needed to do other things to prepare myself for my career in electronics. At that time, I was NOT interested
in math, and in fact nobody in my math class would have considered me as a person to ask for help.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Well, I realized I needed to know math, so started to pay attention and such. Ended up liking it. Took ‘math analysis’ as a senior, which was an honors class.
Needed to do a project to get the honors grade, so I decided I’d write a program to do electronic music (ok, now remember this was, what 45 years ago?). My teacher probably laughed at me for thinking I was going to do that… Anyway, I didn’t even start on
writing a program, but somehow that launched me into a deep interest in software development.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">After that, I ended up at ASU in the math track for software. (Long-ish story, won’t run down that rabbit trail today)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">The first year, I took FORTRAN. I already knew FORTRAN, so I taught myself C.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Guess what the next year was? Yeah, C. (Ok, the names may not be right, but the concept is true) So I learned something else (Might have been security hacking,
don’t remember that’s too long ago)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">A lot of what I learned was useful along the lines of what others have said – giving you a knowledge base of stuff to choose from (or even just a wider view?)
Much faster than I’d have gotten by flailing around on my own.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">So not sure of my point any more. Perhaps I’m saying that, for me, ‘schooling’ was (at least partly) about learning as much about my area of interest as possible
as quickly as possible, and as a side benefit, getting that piece of paper (diploma) that would open up many possible positions (I’m amazed at how many places require a degree, even if you’ve been working 40 years in the field)..<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">(As it ended up, my primary interest areas were near-real-time and hardware/software interfacing. Often on the same project ;-)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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