Specialise to survive?

[mick at pauldotcom.com (Michael Douglas)]

Yes, specialists with a lack of skill in other areas can be truly dangerous.

Funny & true story (details of where this happened omitted to protect
the guilty)

One day I saw our IDS system explode with alarms about some truly
horrific network traffic, at the same time, our host monitoring system
started showing web servers winking out of existence.  Evil was afoot.

As I was about to run to the server room, a DBA we'll call Clueless
Carl came over.  And asked the most horrifying question I've ever
heard.

Carl: "Mick, I just ran into a strange ping problem.  When I send
pings that are over 2.5 meg in size I'll get a response back once...
but then the rest time out."
Me: (I made a squeaking "urk" type sound) ...  what?
Carl:  You know ping.  I need to test the network. Ping's how you do it.
Me: well... sometimes.  Did you say 2.5 Meg?  As in megabytes? via ping?
Carl: (clearly exasperated) YEAH!  We're having trouble with the TPS
reports... some of the results don't display in the browser right.
Looking at the table the result set is a bit under 2.5 Meg.  So I
wanted to see why the network can't handle data sets that large.  We
have a problem here!
Me: You have no idea!  (evil grin)


And that's why I now offer up network 101 classes (and a series of
others) to *anyone* who wants to attend.


Sorry to thread jack, but it was too good to pass up!
- Mick


On Sun, Aug 16, 2009 at 10:07 AM, Raffi
Jamgotchian<raffi at flossyourmind.com> wrote:
> That's precisely what's wrong about your argument. Your asumption is
> that the generalist doesn't have deep understanding in any subject.
>
> A good generalist can do the work of many people. But the same good
> generalist needs to know when to call in for help.
>
> In my experience, present company excluded of course, specialists that
> are typically so narrow in thinking cause more issues than not.
> Because they don't completely understand the affects on surrounding
> disciplines.
>
> ----
> Raffi
>
> On Aug 16, 2009, at 8:49 AM, Shane Kelly <shane at nightcoder.org> wrote:
>
> > I think you are going to have incompetent people at either side of the
> > spectrum.
> > You could argue that generalists are multi-handed specialists / or
> > that specialists do not have sufficient understanding of surround
> > areas.
> > You could also argue that generalists do not have enough technical
> > understanding or patience to pursue a given specialism.
> >
> > It ultimately comes down to how must time and effort people are
> > willing to invest in understanding their acclaimed subject. IMHO, you
> > can not encapsulate peoples skill level at a 100 foot view of there
> > depth into the subject. You need people in both sides of the field.
> > Generalists to have enough knowledge to understand where organisations
> > should focus efforts.
> > Specialists to focus on that area and have deep technical knowledge of
> > that area to ensure a quality work is performed.
> >
> > In my view, generalists make good sales people, specialists get
> > recognised in the security field for there technical achievements.
> >
> > Shane
> >
> >
> > 2009/8/16 Raffi Jamgotchian <raffi at flossyourmind.com>:
> > > Hear hear. Whether a generalist or a specialist, hubris will bite
> > > you.
> > >
> > > ----
> > > Raffi
> > >
> > > On Aug 15, 2009, at 10:35 PM, Michael Douglas <mick at pauldotcom.com>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > > jack of all trades messed up the environment
> > > >
> > > > OK this is the one area where I wasn't too clear on the earlier
> > > > thread. ?I'm assuming that you are competent in everything that you
> > > > say you're going to do. ?Unfortunately, this isn't the case. ?There
> > > > are many Jerks of All Trades who will mess things up badly.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > For those who mentioned it above, yes being a generalist does tend
> > > > to
> > > > get you in the small and medium sized businesses... but there are
> > > > exceptions... take my day job for instance. ?For those of you who
> > > > don't know, I work at OCLC -- a non-profit library coop. ?We're what
> > > > I'd consider large. ?We have over 72,000 libraries in our
> > > > collective.
> > > > We have a database with holdings information on about 1.2 billion
> > > > (yes
> > > > billion) records (books and other stuff). ?We have a few thousand
> > > > servers... yet they hired me... ?A generalist!
> > > >
> > > > I'm a generalist... but a big part of my ability to get things
> > > > done is
> > > > admitting what I don't know. ?For instance, a big part of my skill
> > > > with forensics is how I DON'T mess up data. ?If things get to hairy
> > > > for me, I can wrap things up and call in folks who are better than
> > > > me
> > > > (and remember, there ALWAYS is someone better than you -- thinking
> > > > otherwise is the first step on the path to destruction)
> > > >
> > > > knowing when to sit down and hack or when to walk away is probably
> > > > the
> > > > greatest skill anyone in computers can have!
> > > >
> > > > - Mick
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > On Sat, Aug 15, 2009 at 2:42 PM, John Navarro<jnavtx at gmail.com>
> > > > wrote:
> > > > > Good point Tim!
> > > > > Robert, I do think that a "jack of all trades" type will fit in
> > > > > better to
> > > > > smaller companies, whereas the specialized, from my experience,
> > > > > seem to have
> > > > > a better chance at getting into larger corporations. It was never
> > > > > my
> > > > > intention to be "specialized", but having worked at a firewall
> > > > > vendor it was
> > > > > just easier to find those opportunities that required a specific
> > > > > skillset.
> > > > > Of course it could be that the jack of all trades messed up the
> > > > > environment
> > > > > and they needed someone specialized to come in and clean it up ;)
> > > > >
> > > > > On Sat, Aug 15, 2009 at 8:16 AM, Tim Krabec <tkrabec at gmail.com>
> > > > > wrote:
> > > > > > Don't forget your specialization does not have to be computer/
> > > > > > program
> > > > > > related
> > > > > >
> > > > > > You don't have to specialize in "forensic analysis of devorak
> > > > > > keyboards
> > > > > > for AS/400 systems
> > > > > > emulating Apple IIc systems"
> > > > > > You could specialize in database recovery for small businesses.
> > > > > > Or BCP &
> > > > > > DR for law offices or real estate companies.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > --
> > > > > > Tim Krabec
> > > > > > Kracomp
> > > > > > 772-597-2349
> > > > > > smbminute.com
> > > > > > kracomp.blogspot.com
> > > > > > www.kracomp.com
> > > > > >
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