[xquery-talk] XML/XQuery academic conferences ?

[David Lee]

---- David
> ... which is probably why I dont look to PhD's when I'm looking for  
> a good
> software person.
---- Daniela
Well, that's a surprising view for me.

( I don't REQUIRE a Phd when I look for a good developer, but nor do I  
disqualify people
because they have one. I am taking my good developers wherever I find  
them. )

--------------------------------------------
-- David
I never said I disqualify people for having a PhD but out of the hundreds of
software developers I've interviewed and dozens I've been responsible for
hiring, not a single one would I say having a PhD in any way was a
significant positive contribution to their qualifications or rationale for
hiring them.

In many (but not all) cases I found a direct disconnect between PhD style
education in computer science and between being able to actually write good
software.

-------------------

-- Daniela
If they weren't any software academics,  there would be no software  
professors,
and if there are no software professors, there will be no  software  
students. If there are no students,
there is no critical mass.

Etc. Etc. Etc. The vicious circle.
------------------------------------------------

--- David
Disagree
Some of the greatest software developers in the world have had no formal
education.
Many more have had formal education in non-software fields.
I'm not opposed to Academia, but I do not agree its necessarily the best way
to produce good Software developers, and by no means the only way.   
Improving it would be nice though.    I would LOVE it if having a PhD in
Computer Science actually meant you could write good quality software.   But
in my experience it does not.


----------------------------------------
David A. Lee
dlee at calldei.com
http://www.xmlsh.org