[geeks] pacing yourself (was: totally unrelated)

[geeks at sunhelp.org]

~ -----Original Message-----
~ From: Geek [mailto:geek at geeksworld.net]
~ Subject: Re: [geeks] pacing yourself (was: totally unrelated)
~ 
~ Good points all of them. See I wanted to learn true networking when I
~ went to school and all they wanted to teach was Microsoft and how to
~ get everything else to work with it. 

The term "networking", "networker" and "network admin/engineer" have been
bastardized. Getting a network-aware operating system to function properly
on a network is the job of a system administrator/engineer and a basic
knowlege of the protocol in use (usually tcp/ip) is all thats needed.
Getting lots of systems to talk and play well with others, and getting
distant offices to all talk together is the job of the network
admin/engineer. The "true" networker doesn't have a strong/deep knowlege of
O/S's, but does have a very deep understanding of lots of other things like
about a hundred protocols, dealing with telcos, dataflow modeling,
statistical multiplexing and voice communications (we now are expected to
deal with that too).

As far as learning true networking, I have no idea how you would do that. I
dropped out of two colleges because they weren't teaching me networking. I
had to learn it all in the real world and from manufacturers courses (a
degree in CompSci or EE helps some, I almost finished the EE).

~ It seems every time I sit down
~ at that computer it feels too big and complicated to grasp. I am not
~ sure if I am making a mistake in my approach, or maybe I am more user
~ then administrator. 

Yes, it is big and complicated. Thats why people focus on their individual
strengths and interests. There are a few people around that are very good at
many aspects of computing
(hardware/software/datacom/operations/userland/etc), but they are rare. I
have said before that you can only be great at one thing (most of us
anyways).

If you want to be a good admin, then you should realize that good admins do
certain things that are unrelated to what O/S they are adminning. There are
understandings, practices and proceedures that are common to all admins
regardless of O/S. The best thing is to get an entry level job in a good
shop and learn from the senior admins (aka: standing on the shoulders of
giants).