how come everybody is so smart

  • Thread starter Thread starter Smowk
  • Start date Start date
Smowk said:
you guys are really smart, how did you get that way
Click to expand...

Some of the folks here REALLY are "smart" but
if you want to know how I learned this stuff then
it is very SIMPLE:

1) I hit help A LOT
2) I search the web, newsgroups etc a LOT
(BTW: I use Google for searching even MS)
3) I try things (a lot)
4) I am really stubborn when something doesn't work
(this is a bigger deal than it might seem)
5) I assume the problem CAN be solved, and that I
either KNOW enough or can FIND OUT how
(see #1 and #2, and #4)
6) When things aren't working, I get VERY picky
about EXACTLY what IS and IS NOT happening,
very logical about dividing and conquering through
simplification of the problem
7) I am a speed reader

Except for #7 anyone can do the above -- #6 needs a bit
of training for most people too.

But learning to speed read is not that hard if you
are "really stubborn" and apply #5 for 6-10 weeks.

Enjoy -- and I am literally telling you how above.
 
Some of the folks here REALLY are "smart" but
if you want to know how I learned this stuff then
it is very SIMPLE:

1) I hit help A LOT
2) I search the web, newsgroups etc a LOT
(BTW: I use Google for searching even MS)
3) I try things (a lot)
4) I am really stubborn when something doesn't work
(this is a bigger deal than it might seem)
5) I assume the problem CAN be solved, and that I
either KNOW enough or can FIND OUT how
(see #1 and #2, and #4)
6) When things aren't working, I get VERY picky
about EXACTLY what IS and IS NOT happening,
very logical about dividing and conquering through
simplification of the problem
7) I am a speed reader

Except for #7 anyone can do the above -- #6 needs a bit
of training for most people too.

But learning to speed read is not that hard if you
are "really stubborn" and apply #5 for 6-10 weeks.

Enjoy -- and I am literally telling you how above.
Click to expand...

lol, i'm also anal
 
--
Herb Martin


Smowk said:
lol, i'm also anal
Click to expand...


Well, that is actually a disadvantage most of the time.

It puts you at the wrong level of detail.

The key is to keep your thinking at a rather high level
and only get picky as necessary.

The problem most people have is that they are stuck
at one level or another -- they don't bring context
selection under conscious control.
 
Herb Martin said:
The problem most people have is that they are stuck
at one level or another -- they don't bring context
selection under conscious control.
Click to expand...

I don't know if this is the context you mean this, but one thing I see a lot
of is that people find one favorite "tool" and they think it is the answer
to everything. For example, you go into the groups devoted to "firewalls",
they want to use firewalls for every imaginable (some unimaginable)
security/management tasks you can think of,...then go over to the group
Policy groups and they are treating the idea of using the GPOs the same
way,....then another goup is treating IPSec as the "universal screwdriver".

It becomes caotic, if people would just use the right tool for the right job
in the right context there would probably be a lot less questions asked in
the groups.
 
Phillip Windell said:
I don't know if this is the context you mean this, but one thing I see a lot
of is that people find one favorite "tool" and they think it is the answer
to everything.
Click to expand...

It isn't what I was specifically considering, but
any time one gets "stuck" or "hung up" on a anything
in particular to the extent that the effect is to bling
one to other choices that can be a bad (ineffective)
thing.

My first consideration was more about levels of
detail than specific areas -- some people have to
know ever detail, others cannot stand to look a
little deeper than the service.

Being able to stay out of the detail when it isn't
necessary, and to get down to bedrock when it
is (almost a fluidity) a key component to understanding
great quantities of information and to troubleshooting
new problems (new in the sense that they have
not been solve so many times as to be approachable
by rote.)
 
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