From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.0 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_40 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,81791db8aae86f68 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1995-02-28 13:57:22 PST Path: nntp.gmd.de!stern.fokus.gmd.de!ceres.fokus.gmd.de!zib-berlin.de!fauern!news.th-darmstadt.de!terra.wiwi.uni-frankfurt.de!zeus.rbi.informatik.uni-frankfurt.de!news.dfn.de!fu-berlin.de!zrz.TU-Berlin.DE!netmbx.de!unlisys!news.maz.net!pipex!howland.reston.ans.net!news.moneng.mei.com!uwm.edu!news.alpha.net!news.mathworks.com!news.duke.edu!eff!blanket.mitre.org!linus.mitre.org!spectre!eachus From: eachus@spectre.mitre.org (Robert I. Eachus) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Ada Job Opportunity - Repost Date: 28 Feb 1995 21:57:22 GMT Organization: The Mitre Corp., Bedford, MA. Message-ID: References: <3imiv3$3fa@stout.entertain.com> <3it9et$36n@rational.rational.com> <3isqhn$9g4@stout.entertain.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: spectre.mitre.org In-reply-to: mikeh@ssd.fsi.com's message of Tue, 28 Feb 1995 14:23:03 GMT Date: 1995-02-28T21:57:22+00:00 List-Id: In article mikeh@ssd.fsi.com (Michael Hann) writes: > Colin James has a point . . . most engineers couldn't write their > way out of a paper bag. On the other hand, most soft subject > people are sadly lacking in fundamental technical knowledge. This canard against engineers has, in my experience no basis in fact. A much better dividing line between C. P. Snow's two cultures is that members of one culture know mathematics, and members of the other do not. (I could say members of the other culture believe in Astrology, but that is a little too nasty.) When I was a member of the Savoyards (a group in Philadelphia devoted to producing the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan) the closest we came to a "non-technical" member was my bridge partner who was the head of an insurance company. (Robert Dewar also has lots of experience in this area, I'm sure he would be willing to comment.) Many of my musician friends--some met well outside of the computer business--kept bread in their mouths as computer programmers, the two talents seem to run together. So I just can't believe that it is just coincidence, or the way I pick my friends. When I make a literary or artistic allusion, I expect most of my engineer friends and some of the liberal arts majors to get it. I can claim to be a bystander in the battle, my undergaduate degree is officially in the most mathematical of the social sciences--Economics. But I would be lying--Mathematics is one of the Liberal Arts in theory, but very far from there in practice, and I have a masters in Operations Research and Statistics--from a Management School. (There I've done it! My dark, dirty secrets revealed not only do I have a B.A. not a B.S., but I have a Masters from a B-school. ;-) Okay here is a challenge--I'll disqualify myself. Name the seven liberal arts--the trivium and the quadrivium. Identify yourself as a math/science/engineering geekmajor or a liberal arts or social sciences type. Extra points for identifing the cathedral that depicts them. We'll see how people sort themselves out. -- Robert I. Eachus with Standard_Disclaimer; use Standard_Disclaimer; function Message (Text: in Clever_Ideas) return Better_Ideas is...