[brianmwaters_hn]

Hm, I agree that there's a lot scattered out there, but I hope that there's some room for exploration (and maybe specialization) somewhere in the noise.

I actually have an interesting perspective on this, being completely self-taught, before returning to university as an adult to get a computer science degree.

There are pros and cons to both sides of the self-taught vs. teacher-taught thing, though I'll make my bias clear up front: I spent a lot of years reading books and messing around with stuff; now, when I hear college students complain that a teacher "isn't a clear lecturer" or "didn't answer my question well," my tendency is to say "there's a book and an Internet out there, suck it up and get to studying, buddy," though I realize that attitude isn't perfect for everyone.

[nickpsecurity]

" when I hear college students complain that a teacher "isn't a clear lecturer" or "didn't answer my question well," my tendency is to say "there's a book and an Internet out there, suck it up and get to studying, buddy,""

I get that and mostly agree with it. Exception being the people who learn best with the help of others (esp face-to-face). They don't learn the hard stuff well with text but they're valuable once they learn it. The other exception would be the topics where having a pro at hand can greatly simplify the learning process mostly due to nature of topic itself.

In most situations, you're totally right. People just aren't putting in effort. I think the stuff with lots of historical baggage of unknown usefulness seems like unjustifiable effort to many in IT. So, I don't throw them into that category if it's such a thing rather than their own skill set. Now, if they didn't know essential networking skills and griped that nobody told them, I might link to your comment followed by a back hand.

[cbd1984]

> when I hear college students complain that a teacher "isn't a clear lecturer" or "didn't answer my question well," my tendency is to say "there's a book and an Internet out there, suck it up and get to studying, buddy,"

Which raises the question of what the lecturer is even standing around talking for. Isn't it just a waste of their own and everyone else's time if they aren't good at doing what they attempt to do? If someone is a good researcher and lousy in the classroom, why make them teach classes and waste everyone's time?

[nickpsecurity]

I agree with you there. I think Brian probably would, too. His point was that many people let their pursuit of knowledge end there rather than use other resources available to learn what they needed to know. The lecturer becomes an excuse rather than an obstacle on the path to understanding.