We all chose IT, what is what we know today in 40 years?
Topic: My Personal Grief
I am not young anymore but have I got all the knowledge that can make me feel secure or at least saying "I am a knowledgeable person as I have 8 years experience in IT".
The answer is NO and forever will be NO.
Why?
My cousin is an accountant; we were born in a same year. When he talks about his job, I know he knows his job well. He can talk about his "products" in all manners without slight thoughts because he has been practicing it for 8 years straight.
My younger brother works in a hotel. He started as a waiter and now a hotel restaurant manager. He can talk about his line of work inside out. His knowledge impresses most of his colleague and those who work in his line.
My elder brother graduated as a pastry chef from ITM and work in a hotel. Although he skips places a lot but he is a good cook / chef. When he talks about his work, people around him know that he knows his work based on his experience.
My aunt and sister own their on businesses. They speak business languages and from time to time, they grew mature with their works. Businesses go well and they are recognized by many businessmen as successful business women.
My friend is a teacher, just got promoted to be the deputy principle. From time to time, his experience and knowledge in his work line growing and he became more and more confident with himself.
One respectful man I met was the honorary Professor in UM. He retired couple years back but still practicing his medical knowledge by consulting medical colleges, lectures and future to be professors. His 40 years experience has built him to be a prominent man and he is proud of his years of experience.
My uncle is a pathologist (doctor) working with military. After years practicing medical, he got promoted to be a Colonel and with his knowledge, he is a commanding officer to many staff. It doesn't need for him to take long time to diagnose many cases since his experience has helped him to identify fast.
My old schoolmate has been working as a pilot in a commercial air plane for 6 years by now. He can be proud with his 6 years working experience as he can tell many tips and tricks to juniors and also to many of us.
My younger cousin graduated from medical school 2 years ago and working as dietician ever since. With only 2 years experience, she has had enough exposure to enable her to take charge of few wings of hospital for chronic patients.
What is the morale of my story?
When I started working in IT, I was an IT technician lurking around PCs troubleshooting with Win 95/98 and few Win 3.11 machines. I later on, climb a ladder as IT executive and move up and never looked back. My salary goes higher and higher as time passing by. But, unfortunately, technology passes as time. With only 8 years experience, I have gone through too many technologies. At the end of 1999, I was almost going to say that I have mastered Win NT 3.5, Win NT 4.0, Win 95 and Win 98, but before I could say that, the whole world turned to Win 2000. When I almost can tell the world that I have mastered Exchange 5.5, the whole world turned against me again. Can I say that I am good in Exchange 2000? No! How about Exchange 2003? I don't think so!
Take for instance, while a lot of IT people still struggle with Exchange 5.5, Exchange 2000 came out. And when we start to feel that we can manage most of Exchange 5.5 problems, we start to have to deal with Exchange 2000 problems and new things to learn. The moment we feel 90% comfortable with Exchange 5.5, it has disappeared in many organizations. Then we focus to exchange 2000, but before we could understand 100% inside-out of it, Exchange 2003 appears. By time we feel 80 - 90% comfortable with Exchange 2000, it will be washed out as the new exchange 2006 appears and life will goes on again. We can't never be relaxed, can't we?
The world didn't stop by then but it continues until today.
The worse is, after years leaving Win NT 3.5 / 4.0 and Exchange 5.5; I cannot really remember them well anymore. There goes my 4 years knowledge at once upon a time I was so proud at. Exchange 2000 and Win 2000 have slowly passing me, am I going to forget them later too? YES! LongHorn is coming!
When can I actually say.. "I AM AN EXPERT!!". No, I don't think the time will come. Human evolution can't be that fast. We all watch X-men, we know that mutations take 1000 years to change. If I were a brain-surgeon, I think by now with my 8 years of experience, I must have at least mastered 70% of knowledge since human body remains as it is.
It is not an epic, why? Because just after 6 months I graduated my degree, 90% of the books have becoming dinosaurs. People don't use them anymore, the internet technologies, operating systems, applications and infrastructures changed not a little but too drastically. Those books cannot even be sold, they are totally outdated!
Do I have to renew my Microsoft certifications every 2 years? I have had enough losses in money and time in my life; do I have to increase another loss? YES, damn hell yes I have to! It is my life; I earn my living with them.
I am still young now. Even how much I think about all that I have written above, I can still do it. My brain is still working. But, how about 40 years from now? Can I sustain? I force myself to continue learning now because I don't wish to be a dinosaur, but I know, someday I have to learn to accept the fact that we can never be able to catch a fast moving train forever. There will be a day when we finally have to surrender. That will be the day we going to regret most because we chose to work chasing a fast moving train of knowledge. And at that day, we just can't run anymore. And we someday will be dinosaurs whether we like it or not.
The point is, at that time, can you use all your knowledge to teach youngsters like my old professor friend?
HELL, NO!
I love IT since I was 9 years old. I learn by damaging my school computers and play lot of games. I have worked in 4 companies in 8 years to chase technologies every time they changed. I ran hundred of labs testing and digging something new. I never want to be a dinosaur. I hunger for new coming technologies but, 40 years from now, can I use that knowledge to teach youngsters? No, we can't. We can only tell people what we have done, our great and grief moments. But as time goes by, they are all gone. And our once upon a time a "knowledge" will go as time pass by.
If I am a doctor, I could have been one of the respectful experienced doctor with 8 years of solid experience. But I am not a doctor am I? I am not a professor too, I am not an architect, I am not an accountant, I am not a pilot, I AM NOT A STATIC WORKER! I work chasing something that will disappear totally in at least 5 years. That is who I am!
Sometimes I have been thinking that we bust our ass to the knowledge that cannot be passed on to our next generation.
We inherit a "today's knowledge" that would be obsolete in another couple of years and then we will have to start all over again.
In the next 40 years, if I continued renewing my certifications, I will have not less than
1) 24 MCSE
2) 24 MCSA
3) 24 MCDBA
4) 24 MCT
5) And many other
And if my grand kids worked in IT in future, I don't think he/she could ask me for some genius opinion. The only thing they could see would be the same way we look at ALTAIR programmers, or some old man who still think computers sit in the box.
One fine day before the 40 years, computers will be in a form of holographic where we don't need to have to carry a laptop or use a PC. They will appear before us when we call upon them, they can answer questions and type us a letter without having us typing or thinking. They can be seen walking with their owners on the street. They are the future computers while we will be some grand parents who can only refresh our memory about what we are doing today which is no longer exist.
Have you guys think of this?
Posted by Jay
at 7:21 AM
Updated: Monday, 15 November 2004 5:11 PM
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