certification

[list at satchell.net (Stephen Satchell)]

On 06/07/2015 09:28 AM, Randy Bush wrote:
> i assume, but have zero actual knowledge/experience, that certification
> courses/programs actually cover all the corners and minutiae of a subject
> such as is-is.  so you come out knowing all the options and details, 42%
> of which you will use; or maybe 24% if you are parsimonious.
>
> while i no longer have spare room in my head for a lot of stuff i will
> not use, having some clue about what's outside my current practice zone
> would be useful.  if i was young and had spare brain cells and time, i
> might read through the course ware and do some playing in the lab.  but
> you can't move packets on pieces of paper.

Putting on my "professor's kid" hat:  Education is *supposed* to be 
about learning how to find answers when you need them.  How to 
understand what you find.  Yes, there are a number of basic things you 
need to do "by rote" and from memory (especially "muscle memory"), but 
when you run into the one-percent cases, you need to know where to look 
and how to apply what your search turns up.

"[I do not] carry such information in my mind since it is readily 
available in books. ...The value of a college education is not the 
learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think."
     -- Albert Einstein