How Do You Teach Everything in IT?
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If someone could give me pointers to reinforce critical thinking skills with green IT Staff, I would be eternally grateful. Experience plays a large part in knowing which questions to ask during that process, but other parts are just "common sense" to some people while completely foreign to others. From reading error messages to services breaking, IT people need to dig deep sometimes to resolve an issue. When training staff, I usually ask them the same questions that I ask myself internally. Ex - "What is related to this process that could affect this failure" (Scope & Environment), "What does that error message mean? Break it apart and take it one part at a time"
I have a saying/theory/whatever: There is always a point where you look at technology and consider it a "magic black box". This is where your understanding ends and it "just works". IT people need to be many, many layers deeper than the average user.
The concern is how to prep IT People to push deeper when they hit the "magic black box" so that A ) They dont stop or get frustrated before they fix the problem & B ) Their understanding and knowledge improve which helps reduce the "magic black box" issues
Also I always stress consistent testing environments for new staff. Your hour of testing means little if important factors are not tracked that could influence this issue.
Feel free to improve my saying (or completely refute it if you disagree). Im always open to improving my management and training skills.
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@Kelly said in How Do You Teach Everything in IT?:
I have no idea what is normative (other than what is mentioned here and elsewhere), and that is a moving target at best.
You've nicely summarized why I'm taking an old MacBookPro home tonight as well as fighting with linux to make it do my bidding in any of several flavors. My days of being a windoze only admin are drawing to a close.
Tangentially related: I need a better paying job really badly. I'm open to offers / ideas, please msg me or whatever.
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@ryanblahnik said in How Do You Teach Everything in IT?:
Sorry I don't have much help to offer after the mention though, Matt, and good luck with your hunt :mountain_bicyclist_tone4:
Cheers mate, you too
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@Brains said in How Do You Teach Everything in IT?:
I have a saying/theory/whatever: There is always a point where you look at technology and consider it a "magic black box". This is where your understanding ends and it "just works". IT people need to be many, many layers deeper than the average user.
That's a great perspective, I like that. At some level, everything because a magic black box to everyone; it's just different levels.
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@scottalanmiller said in How Do You Teach Everything in IT?:
That's a great perspective, I like that. At some level, everything because a magic black box to everyone; it's just different levels.
That's a great perspective, I like that. At some level, everything becomes a magic black box to everyone; it's just different levels. - ftfy
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@Brains said in How Do You Teach Everything in IT?:
I have a saying/theory/whatever: There is always a point where you look at technology and consider it a "magic black box". This is where your understanding ends and it "just works". IT people need to be many, many layers deeper than the average user.
I really like this.
The question is how do I erase the magic box in an efficient way? I think forums where fact/opinion are both listed really halts the learning process. I say that as a person who has unknowingly been wrong myself.
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@wirestyle22 said in How Do You Teach Everything in IT?:
@Brains said in How Do You Teach Everything in IT?:
I have a saying/theory/whatever: There is always a point where you look at technology and consider it a "magic black box". This is where your understanding ends and it "just works". IT people need to be many, many layers deeper than the average user.
I really like this.
The question is how do I erase the magic box in an efficient way? I think forums where fact/opinion are both listed really halts the learning process. I say that as a person who has unknowingly been wrong myself.
In some ways it certainly does. But in other ways it exposes misconceptions. Look at people who learn elsewhere then post things on forums and get their ideas vetted by live logic and examination. I think that forums expose a lot that are missed otherwise.
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@scottalanmiller said in How Do You Teach Everything in IT?:
@wirestyle22 said in How Do You Teach Everything in IT?:
@Brains said in How Do You Teach Everything in IT?:
I have a saying/theory/whatever: There is always a point where you look at technology and consider it a "magic black box". This is where your understanding ends and it "just works". IT people need to be many, many layers deeper than the average user.
I really like this.
The question is how do I erase the magic box in an efficient way? I think forums where fact/opinion are both listed really halts the learning process. I say that as a person who has unknowingly been wrong myself.
In some ways it certainly does. But in other ways it exposes misconceptions. Look at people who learn elsewhere then post things on forums and get their ideas vetted by live logic and examination. I think that forums expose a lot that are missed otherwise.
That is a very good point.
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That's how RAID 5 spread... but then kept spreading after it didn't make sense anymore... until people started questioning it on forums and people had to reevaluate and update their knowledge.
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@scottalanmiller Yeah. I still see posts about it on Spiceworks every now and then. You and I were having a conversation about the merits of Raid 10 (specifically to the solution I was discussing) which is what brought me here. /memories
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@wirestyle22 said in How Do You Teach Everything in IT?:
@scottalanmiller Yeah. I still see posts about it on Spiceworks every now and then. You and I were having a conversation about the merits of Raid 10 (specifically to the solution I was discussing) which is what brought me here. /memories
Someone promoted RAID 5 within the last hour, for an 84TB array believe it or not!
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@scottalanmiller said in How Do You Teach Everything in IT?:
@wirestyle22 said in How Do You Teach Everything in IT?:
@scottalanmiller Yeah. I still see posts about it on Spiceworks every now and then. You and I were having a conversation about the merits of Raid 10 (specifically to the solution I was discussing) which is what brought me here. /memories
Someone promoted RAID 5 within the last hour, for an 84TB array believe it or not!
Have the link? This I HAVE to watch
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I'll look for it. I've lost it already. Was just one guy promoting it mid-thread. Nothing too serious. But he really got into why he liked it.
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The best part was he felt that "if you manage it well, RAID 5 is safe." Um... how do you "manage RAID 5 well?"
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@scottalanmiller His response was notifications/alerts and hotspares....
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@brianlittlejohn said in How Do You Teach Everything in IT?:
@scottalanmiller His response was notifications/alerts and hotspares....
I need to make some popcorn!
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He also called @scottalanmiller a troll and Spiceworks Jesus
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None of this can be real
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