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From: kanze@lts.sel.alcatel.de (James Kanze US/ESC 60/3/141 #40763)
Subject: Re: Analysis vs Design/Implementation (was Re: SCRUM and Why the...)
In-Reply-To: ichudov@espcbw.stat.ncsu.edu's message of 9 Dec 1995 07:57:10 GMT
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Date: 11 Dec 1995 19:54:13 GMT
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In article <4abfgm$m06@taco.cc.ncsu.edu> ichudov@espcbw.stat.ncsu.edu
(Igor Chudov) writes:

|> Christopher Barber (cbarber@bbn.com) wrote:
|> * >>>>> "IC" == Igor Chudov <ichudov@espcbw.stat.ncsu.edu> writes:

|> *     IC> _The Bell Curve_ asserts that job success directly depends on
|> *     IC> IQ. So it is no surprise that if a smart person excels at one
|> *     IC> activity, she would excel at another, too.

|> * This is getting off topic, but what the hell....

|> * IMHO, _The_Bell_Curve_ is mostly crap since it is based on the
|> * concept that "intelligence" can be measured in a single monotonic
|> * variable (the IQ).  Of course, this is absurd.  In fact, two people 
|> * with the same IQ could have very different intellectual skills.  
|> * I have a friend who is a brilliant musicologist, a superb teacher,
|> * an excellent writer, and an innovative scholar, but she always had
|> * a tough time with math and science in college and I dare say that
|> * she would make a lousy programmer.

|> * However, within the realm of software I would have to agree that 
|> * there is an extremely high overlap between those that will make good
|> * designers and those who will make good implementers.

|> Since software is very mathematics-rich, we must note that there are
|> two generally recognized abilities: verbal one and mathematical one.
|> An IQ is usually a composite of both; for choosing programmers,
|> however, we should look at the mathematical part more.

This still seems to be overly simplifying things.  Is music verbal or
mathematical?  Linguistics?  How about auto mechanics?  How about
hunting, as done by "primitive" peoples (survival hunting, not sport
hunting)?  I doubt that you can rigorously separate the verbal from
the mathematical, and I doubt that there are really only two forms.  I
also doubt that intelligence per se is measurable, and I have serious
doubts that there are significant quantitive differences amongst
normal people.  (The fact that there are qualititative differences -
people are intelligent in different ways - probably means that no
quantative comparison is even possible.)

The real question, with regards to the thread, is, of course, who
cares.  As an employer, you are not interested in whether a potential
candidate is intelligent (in some abstract way), you are interested in
whether he can write programs (in a very concrete way).  You are not
interested in intelligence in general, but only in one specific and
somewhat limited manifestation of intelligence.

In most companies, you will also be concerned with other factors.  In
general, any skill is useless unless you know how to communicate it.
In our field this is particularly so; it is just impossible for one
man to realize many of the projects that people are doing, so teamwork
becomes vital.  (Of course, communication could perhaps come under
your verbal skills.  But there are people who are marvelously
effective in communicating about programs, and totally ineffective in
anything else.)

Finally, social skills are (in principal) not considered part of
intelligence.  But you will certainly require some of your
programmers.  The frequency you take a bath certainly has nothing to
do with intelligence, but you probably don't want to employ someone
who never takes a bath, and with whom no one can stand to be in the
same room because of the odor.  (If this sounds exagerated, it is
regretfully a true story.)
--
James Kanze         Tel.: (+33) 88 14 49 00        email: kanze@gabi-soft.fr
GABI Software, Sarl., 8 rue des Francs-Bourgeois, F-67000 Strasbourg, France
Conseils, tudes et ralisations en logiciel orient objet --
                -- A la recherche d'une activit dans une region francophone

