[brianmwaters_hn]

Totally agree with everything you're saying, but I would point out the the article is not about addressing a lay audience, it's about addressing network engineers who are supposedly lacking some historical/technical knowledge of their own field of work.

[nickpsecurity]

I expect network engineers to understand what they do day to day. Do they really need to understand the whole history of the field to do that? Mostly not: just specific things necessary for their jobs. Our economy and resources are sort of rigged in that direction. So, we might need to use a preemptive solution where we present various principles, tactics, pro's, and con's to them rather than a full history lesson they'll think is useless.

Ideally, they'll learn it all. I've learned the world is rarely ideal. Need a practical alternative to ideal...

[mentat]

That's just it, those who do not understand history are doomed to repeat it. By not learning about it they will make poor day to day decisions which lead to the exact same mistakes decades later.

[fit2rule]

>Do they really need to understand the whole history of the field to do that?

That marks the difference between being a technician and being an engineer. A technician just needs to know how to do their job, whereas an engineer needs to know why they need the technician to do their job.