Discussion among Peers (was: Lighten Touch)

[Ron Nossaman]

Hi Bill,

You covered a lot of ground here, some of which I agree with.

We have a few folks in my neighborhood who could use some education. They
won't attend seminars or conventions, nor will they participate on the
list. Too busy. Some of them will, however, call me occasionally asking
questions (rebuilding) of a level well below what their number of years of
experience should indicate. When I asked one caller why they weren't going
to Reno this year, I was told "Oh, so much new information flies around at
those things that it makes my head spin". I replied "Doesn't that indicate
to you how far behind the curve you are and how much you need to go"?

This is basically Ed's sin. He did something rash in bluffing his way into
a situation he later decided he possibly couldn't handle - something none
of the rest of us have ever done. He then compounded the problem by asking
the list for advice on the subject of which the archives are eyeball deep.
If this very thing hadn't been discussed at great length many times through
the far to recent past, he would have been justified in throwing himself on
the mercy of the list for any help available. As it was, the information
was there in abundance and he should have done his own digging out of the
hole he put himself in. Ideally, all this time, he should have been reading
and absorbing this flow of list information that was AHEAD of his position
in the curve - in anticipation of advancing his education, instead of
presuming that information is important only as it is immediately useful.
Once the need arises, you've probably missed the window to start acquiring
the education. Maybe a few more folks will learn that lesson from this
example and benefit from it in the long run. Even so, the list folk DID try
to help him out. This is a good thing. Go in peace Ed. Consider yourself
duly flogged, and we'll see you tomorrow.

This business of limiting the public discussion of high level information
disturbs me though. If it's proprietary information, sure, but proprietary
information of ANY technical level shouldn't be posted to the list without
the blessing of the owner, so that shouldn't be a problem. The problem for
me is this apparent priesthood attitude of keeping the masses in the dark
so they can't do any damage and are more easily managed. I've run up
against exactly this attitude way too many times in my life when I was
trying to gather information about something that the keepers of the wisdom
arbitrarily decided was above my station. Wrong clothes, probably. Most
times if I managed to circumvent the "system" and eventually accumulate the
information I was after the hard way, I found that too often the
gatekeepers had stone walled me simply to keep me from getting past the
facade and discovering that they weren't any more god-like than I was, and
their closely guarded information was as shot full of holes as everything
else. If they had simply been open with me, I would have wasted a lot less
time, and might have had information they could use to their benefit too.
We might have even had enough between us to plug a few of the holes.

Just what are these high level "secrets" the newbies shouldn't be allowed
access to so they won't do any damage? Who's got them, and who do I talk to
to get some? Any information at all beyond the level of function of anyone
at all is dangerous if the individual isn't functional at their present
advertised level, so I guess we just need to roll it up and go home unless
we can figure out where to draw lines. You today would likely consider you
XX years ago as a dangerous incompetent, but if you had been kept insulated
from high level information all that time, the you of today and the you of
XX years ago would be a lot closer to being the same person. 

Then there's this thing about peers. Who's your peer? Who's Ed's? Who's
mine? Nearly as I can tell, since no two of us are equivalent, none of us
can safely talk to any other.

Incidentally, is that why the big names of the early years of the list
dropped out - to avoid the Prometheus syndrome? Or was it to keep the
commoners from looking behind the curtain? There's a certain element of
danger associated with knowledge of any kind.


Ron N