From the blog.
John Y. wrote:
I definitely don’t know EVERYTHING, but I can Google the hell out of ANYTHING!
The fact that one can produce code doesn't mean that one can use it effectively, completely and even correctly. An example of that is the difference between coding in C, C# and SQL. Each of them requires a significantly different approach in thinking (procedural, OO, set) to use the language correctly. It is readily apparent when one looks at an implementation in one language done by someone who doesn't know how the other language works. For example large amounts of code in C# (or C++) written following a procedural view. Or large amounts of SQL that use loops.
Would you rather have someone who knows a bunch about one particular thing,
Definitely that is sometimes needed. For example setting up a multi-sourced database solution with fail over, replication and an analysis of costs and options is not something that I want done via google. Nor do I want to rely on a business analyst to support a large company focusing on finance whose only experience previously was is mechanical engineering analysis. They might learn in time but there is domain knowledge that one just cannot pick up in a week.
John Y. wrote:
One of my favorite examples was when I wrote an AWK (yeah, that’s right :-P ) script to normalize a formatted age-listing report into a CSV file for an accountant friend of mine.
I don't think this is comparable. I create one-shots all of the time in perl. However I almost never deliver perl code into production for one simple reason: most developers do not know it and at the places I have worked the primary language is not perl. So to meet the needs of the business (which is more than just implementation) I don't use perl.
John Y. wrote:
Something that has been bothering me for quite some time now is the “required” experience placed on so many technology job-postings. Now, this is just my generalized opinion — I realize that sometimes a project requires immediate knowledge on the specific technology, but when looking for a permanent employee, does it REALLY make that much of a difference if he/she has had so many years working in a certain language?
There are different reasons for doing that however. For example there are
