Ragged Clown

It's just a shadow you're seeing that he's chasing…


Nov
11
2006

90% of everything is crap

In my profession, software engineering, only about 10% of the professionals ever read books or practice their craft or attend conferences or keep track of what the gurus are saying or aspire to gurudom themselves. For many, the highest aspiration is that one day they will stop being a software professional so they can become a manager of software professionals.

Since software first broke out of the academy and started to be used commercially, the main concern of the software establishment has been to prevent the majority – the 90% who have no desire to improve themselves – from doing the wrong thing.

I haven’t seen everything yet but, from what I have seen of it so far, Sturgeon’s Law holds.

90% of everything is crap

That’s certainly true in my profession and that makes me wonder about the others. In particular, it makes me wonder about the teaching profession.

When I look back on my schooldays, one thing I remember clearly is that most of my teachers were crap. The ones who stood out all had their own style. They had something that couldn’t be learned from a book. They oozed good-teacher-ness. I think I had maybe three like that in my whole time at school. Dylan had already had four before he left elementary school. I hope he has more but the odds are against it.