Sunday Ramblings

Greetings:

I just went to the following link that was sent to me by a friend:

http://java.sun.com/developer/media/deepdivejavawarehouse.jsp

It is, indeed, refreshing to see the older guys teaching the younger guys in a Sun-sponsored video. Having children (anyone less than 30) teaching a class should be an anomaly, not a normal thing. While we older troops should be enjoying our advancing years, at the same time we should recognize that we have something to contribute back to those same "children" who are still struggling with undocumented code, insufficient requirements and poorly constructed architecture. When they become frustrated with these daily problems, we can help them to understand those problems and show them how to deal with each one in the appropriate manner.

I think that as we deal with old age in our every day life, so then we learn to deal with death when it finally arrives. Some of us feel that we are still young, 20-year-old studs that have become trapped in in old man's body that is heir to all of the aches and pains of advancing years. I have come to think of that as God's way of preparing us for the end of life so that we welcome Death as a friend who has come to take us home and not as a protagonist against whom we have to fight.

But, so long as we stay alert and up to date on changes in the industry, do our own research, analyze our own data and prepare our own reports, then we will continue to amass knowledge and we can filter that new knowledge through the years of the pain of working with those who always "take the easy way out." This would be those programmers and scientists who don't try to understand the underlying principles of the art and science of their industry that is sometimes so elusive and seemingly unavailable to those who have had only a few years trying to make things work the right way when using apparently insufficient material. Nevertheless, having worked with younger programmers most of my life, I have found that if I can show them something new or a better way to do things, then I am usually accepted by my cohorts as just another geek trying to make sense out of senseless requirements.

So, to the older, more experienced technical personnel I say this; keep on learning. Never give up on a problem and turn it over to someone else just to make life easier. It is that very struggle, this exercise of the brain, to solve complex problems that makes us who we are. This struggle that gives us strength is much like a butterfly coming out of a cocoon that gives it the strength to fly away. The daily solving of those complex problems gives us the strength and the courage to manage smaller problems of everyday life.

SDG

jco