[aclug-L] Re: I am a smeghead (Letter of apology)

[Jonathan Hall <jonhall@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Yeah... well, I may not be a guru, but I know I'm more humble than you are!

:P


On Mon, Apr 24, 2000 at 11:02:38AM -0500, John Alexander wrote:
> Just a real quick, possibly unrelated, point. Any time somebody tells you
> that they are a guru, they are probably lying to you. If somebody tells you
> that somebody else is a guru, they could be, relative to the person telling
> you, but not relative to yourself. Always keep these precepts in mind
> whenever you hear that word.
> 
> ja
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: discussion-bounce@xxxxxxxxx [mailto:discussion-bounce@xxxxxxxxx]On
> > Behalf Of Greg House
> > Sent: Friday, April 21, 2000 4:55 PM
> > To: discussion@xxxxxxxxx
> > Subject: [aclug-L] Re: I am a smeghead (Letter of apology)
> >
> >
> > On Sun, 19 Apr 1998, you wrote:
> >
> > > I think the reason that many of the people think that ACLUG
> > does not cater to
> > > newbies is because it doesn't really. I see that the reason may
> > be that you
> > > all (original ACLUG) started out together as mostly newbies.
> > Those newbies
> > > have now done one of 2 things, 1) become gurus (or experenced
> > users at least)
> > > 2) left.
> >
> > I still see lots of questions on the discussion list that sound like
> > newbie-type things. I don't think that all the inexperienced
> > users have left.
> > And I don't think that those of us that have been around a little
> > longer have
> > all become gurus. I sure haven't. I've gotten better, but nowhere
> > near guru
> > status.
> >
> > > It problably started out where you were "all" newbies who
> > started moving on to
> > > a little more advanced items, and a little more, until now where either
> > > newbies learn very quickly(as I have done), or leave.
> >
> > When I started, a couple of years or so ago, I was a total newbie. I'd
> > installed Linux a couple of times, trying different
> > distributions, but still
> > hadn't gotten a system fully functional. Some of the meetings I
> > went to were
> > way over my head, but they always sent me home thinking, with
> > some notes to go
> > study things about. I'd come home read some HOWTOs, man pages, or
> > maybe some of
> > an LDP doc and things would make more sense. I never felt like
> > anyone demeaned
> > me for being a newbie. In fact, people were generally very helpful.
> >
> > Now, that doesn't necessarily mean ALL my questions got answered.
> > There were a
> > couple I asked that were never answered by the group. I always
> > figured this was
> > because they dealt with something that nobody had any experience with. If
> > someone asks something on the mailing list that I don't know
> > about, I don't
> > answer (rather then writing back and saying that I don't know
> > about it, that
> > seems like a waste of bandwidth). If I see a question that hasn't gotten
> > answered in awhile, even if I don't know the answer, I may
> > respond with some
> > additional questions or directions that someone might look to try
> > and find the
> > answer themself. I'd appreciate it if someone did that much for me.
> >
> > > I think that a sister group that starts with basically all
> > newbies and starts
> > > working up might be a good idea, and if some of the gurus drop
> > in to give
> > > presentations sometimes, then all the better. But, it should
> > basically be a
> > > seperate group whose members  organize things and go on their
> > own voyage of
> > > discovery. The ACLUG should try to recrute as many people from
> > the community
> > > as possible, and get them together and let them go on pretty
> > much their own.
> >
> > I don't personally think this is a very good idea. Going to a group where
> > NOBODY knows the topic at hand very well isn't going to help
> > anyone learn it.
> > I've learned a lot by going to the ACLUG meetings and reading the
> > list because
> > there are so many people here that have good experience that I
> > can learn from.
> > If everyone was where I was at, it might be a nice social group,
> > but for the
> > purpose of education, it would be limited.
> >
> > I haven't been to the meetings in quite awhile, since Monday &
> > Tuesday nights
> > have gotten very busy for me, but I never noticed the meetings
> > being unfriendly
> > to new users. In fact, the Q&A sessions for the half hour before
> > the meetings
> > were usually pretty interesting when I was going. Have things changed?
> >
> > Greg
> >
> >
> > -- This is the discussion@xxxxxxxxx list.  To unsubscribe,
> > visit http://tmp2.complete.org/cgi-bin/listargate-aclug.cgi
> >
> 
> 
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> visit http://tmp2.complete.org/cgi-bin/listargate-aclug.cgi

--
"Everything that can be invented has been invented." -- Charles H. Duell,
Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.
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