Re: [ossig] (Fwd) STI News: Firm discovers good IT help hard to find

["Colin Charles " <byte@aeon.com.my>]

On 17 Dec 2002 at 14:47, Vincent Lee wrote:

> hi.. imho
> Grades are too important. I think as long as one
> strikes a balance to obtain the grades that they need
> to bring them closer to their targets, it is OK to
> strive hard for the grades.  Hence, if one would like
> to be a grass cutter, grades are irrelevant, if one
> has the passion to be a doctor, grades will be
> important.
> Hence, agree the importance of doing what we like to
> do  and can do best.

Passion to become a good doctor, yes, that is what separates good 
doctors from the rest of the mediocre bunch. If you had the passion 
to be a grass cutter, you'd be the most efficient one, unlike the 
rest of the mediocre bunch. If you have passion to do something, and 
enjoy doing that something, you'd be best at what you do.

On an unrelated note, I have a friend that basically would cheat his 
way thru high school, and even college. He would copy physics tests, 
and still end up with a failing grade. Today he's studying medicine. 
He's going to be a doctor of the future. Are you very afraid now? ;)

In Asian culture (and maybe some other cultures) being a doctor is a 
very respectable profession. Its like you're one above the others. 
But looking at other cultures (hint: let's get exposure), you notice 
that doctors are just as well respected as police men or bus drivers 
(how much respect do Malaysians give to our police force, or even the 
bus drivers?)

One must remember that all professions are respectable. But this is 
going way off tangent, and since we agree on the importance of doing 
what we like to do and doing it to the best of our abilities, I guess 
my argument is silenced from now.

> On another note, school exams could be made fun like
> computer games. When a person plays computer games, he
> needs to learn the rules, he needs to understand the
> concept, the targets, he needs to be quick, efficient,
> he needs to practise etc... But of course, school
> syllabus don't have the multimedia part of the
> computers games...  As playing the school examination
> games GENERALLY brings more good than harm.. it is OK
> to play it hard, and play it well.

Is this actually the case in the Malaysian education scene? From what 
I have heard, and from even what I have seen from my peers, it's a 
far cry from all the analytical skills we want our graduates (from 
school) to have.

Does he learn the rules (or memorise it?)? Does he understand the 
concept (or is he told to memorise the concept?) ?

With a sponge-like memory, he can be quick, but is he efficient to 
our workforce? Probably not. Practice does make perfect, but 
committing to memory forcibly does nothing positive.

I put it to you: would you rather have an employee that scored a pass 
in a subject say for algorithms, but still remembers all the 
pseudocode, etc... or would you rather have an employee that scored a 
distinction in the same subject, but he just memorised the code, in a 
language he was being taught it in - say Java (okay, bad example, say 
C or something)?

These are just my opinions... My 2 sen is free.
--
Colin Charles, byte@aeon.com.my
http://www.bytebot.net/


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