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rick said:
>i think a better example than the airplane one discussed here, is
>the vibrating bridge that destoyed itself in high winds, or any of
>the amazing engineering feats in the recently shown tv series
>(brooklyn bridge, panama canal, etc).
>
>the reason i say this is that they all have the elements that are
>important - money, politics, disaster, engineering (somewhere). but
>most importantly the results of the successes and failures all fed
>into the engineering education systems and are passed on by the
>institutions to each new generation of engineers. learning by
>magazine or experience (or even a few good books) will never replace
>the disciplined study of a formal education at the university of
>technical level. mainly because those who design the courses
>(hopefully) make sure that your education is broad and covers areas
>that you wouldn't normally follow if you just pursued your interests.
Groan...
Academia can usually teach you how to teach, it can even give you a
basic introduction into any given discipline of their choice, but it
generally sucks at any resemblance of innovation. The clique "Those
who can, do -- those who can't, teach!" is a clique for a reason.
I can go on and on with examples of those who were not qualified, but
turned their respective industries upside down -- the Woz and Jobs
for one (or rather two). They took the lofty computer industry, which
up till that time, was for the chosen few and gave it to the unclean
masses, which churned out useless things like the spreadsheet.
If you want to sing the praises of Academia, that's fine. Others sign
along with Corporate America, and that's OK too. But for me, give me
a couple of gifted people and I'll change the world.
tedd
ps: I believe that the vibrating bridge was designed by a college graduate.
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