I’ve often criticized academia for deterioration of its intellectual qualities (see Denormalization for Performance – Et Tu Academia?), and the renouncing of its educational function, in favor of product training (see The Chasing of Mayflies). The title of the latter article comes from a great quote by Edger Dijkstra, which I have used more than once (emphasis added):

 

I hope very much that computing science at large will become more mature, as I am annoyed by two phenomena that both strike me as symptoms of immaturity … one [of which] is the sensitivity to the market place, the unchallenged assumption that industrial products, just because they are there, become by their mere existence a topic worthy of scientific attention, no matter how grave the mistakes they embody. In the sixties the battle that was needed to prevent computing science from degenerating to "how to live with the 360" has been won, and "courses" -- usually "in depth"!-- about MVS or what have you are now confined to the not so respectable subculture of the commercial training circuit.

 

Consider now the following letter from a student to the editor of DB2 Magazine (emphasis added):

 

Hats off to the DB2 Magazine team. I’m a student in masters of computer application program, a three-year post graduate degree. As I go through the latest issue of DB2 Magazine, I get more and more interested in it. I really like the articles, especially the cover story featuring the interview with Nelson Mattos.

The columns Programmers Only and Distributed DBA helped me prepare for examinations (I opted to specialize in DB2 UDB). Thanks to the DB2 Magazine team for taking my knowledge to a new horizon.

 

So what passes for computer science these days is “specialization on products”, the sources of knowledge being vendor trade magazines which are essentially marketing publications.

 

Was Dijkstra right, or what? Scary!

 

There is more. The interview to which the student refers was of “Nelson Mattos Ph.D. IBM Distinguished Engineer and newly minted vice president of information integration (a recent promotion from his role as director)”. If you want to know what PhDs in high level positions know and say today that “take students’ knowledge to new horizons”, watch for my debunking of the interview at DBAzine.com.

 

 

Posted 7/22/05