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F.O.A.D.

On 12/4/13, 3:39 PM, wrote:
On Wed, 04 Dec 2013 14:39:10 -0500, Hank©
wrote:

On 12/4/2013 12:37 PM, wrote:
On Wed, 04 Dec 2013 11:48:05 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

I wonder why being universally taught how to think abstractly or
learning well established "critical thinking" skills in universities is
any different than what military schools offer.

If you haven't attended one, I guess you wouldn't k

Military schools are taught with a particular practical application in
mind. They want people who can analyse problems and fix them,
sometimes without the proper parts and possibly under a lot of
pressure. That is not a "theory" type skill.

I did see the two philosophies side by side. In the 70s IBM
experimented with hiring EEs because we could not find enough vets to
handle the system 360/370 surge.
It was a disaster. They may have been great in abstract thinking but
we wanted guys who could think about the problem in front of them, not
how we should have designed it,
Of the 4 we had, 2 were simply fired, one moved on to management and
the 4th went off to be a design engineer, where he was actually quite
effective. That is the guy I visited on my Colorado trip. (also the
guy with the Solar house in Manassas)

Some of those guys spend much too much time contemplating and not enough
time doing.

This was one of the smartest guys I know ... but he also did 4 in the
USAF after he went to college. That 1A you get the day you graduate
was a scary thing in the 60s.

Gee. You almost have me feeling bad for not doing more than supplying
change of addresses when appropriate to my local draft board. I could
have been drafted and sent to Vietnam to burn villages, women and
children. That would have been...so contemplative, eh?

--
Religion: together we can find the cure.