Community archive

Ask something
Discussion Locked

WIZ KIDS

0 helpful
2 replies

by scottf

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.

I love reading the replies in this news group. The information is invaluable. I am one of (as quoted from an news group response here on TechRepublic) those so called "25yr old wiz kids". But I have been blessed with the ability to listen. I have the hope that the other younger folks in my generation will listen and really hear what the experienced techies have to say. Understanding the history of the systems we now take for granted will give us the "big Picture" when it comes to solving some of the perplexing issues with the many OS's out there. A big THANK YOU to all of those who have been there done that. I sure as heck didn?t learn what I know in school.

It seems to me that the education system public and private is in the process of just getting more techies trained and out the door. A lot of these ?kids? don?t even know how to work in a non-GUI environment when they enter a certification class and come out the other end certified still not knowing how to navigate in DOS (or any other non GUI OS). Who is teaching them the basics?! And the ones who do have the ?wiz know-how? learned on their own, but is it enough?
What do you think about these "Wiz Kids" I would like to know what your experiences are with them? The good and the bad. Are we younger folks getting the proper education to be a positive contributor to this techie domain? Or are we just a bunch of cocky punks as one person stated to me about my generation of eggheads.

Scott Freeman
MCSE

2 replies

by crimsoncub

I am a 20-yr-old. I have more experience than most people my age and older. Knowing 10 different programming languages, the DOS environment, and several OSs. Yes, most of my knowledge was self-acquired and maintained, but experience is the key tointegrating the "old-environment" with the newly changing technologies. This holds that our cockiness can be a major contribution. Legacy systems won't be around for much longer and we need both the experienced and the new to make the transformation smoothly.

John Poteet
MCP

by generalist

I'd be careful stating that legacy systems won't be around much longer.

Back in the mid 80's I mentioned to numerous people that there was going to be a problem with two digit years when the year 2000 rolled around. They ignored the problem because they felt that the legacy systems would be gone by that time. I, on the other hand, planned for what became known as Y2K.

While the hardware the systems ran on are not really legacy, the software could be considered at least 95% legacy. The inertial of the legacy code lasts, especially in environments that don't have a large IT budget. Business people in certain industries tend to be very conservative and believe in the 'If it ain't broken, don't fix it' philosophy.

Still, there have been changes brought on by both the experienced and the new. That 5% non-legacy code didn't get there by chance.

This discussion is closed to new replies.