Published November 5th, 2003 by Jim O'Halloran
How to spot an “expert”
Jeremy mentions a run in with a self proclaimed “database expert”.
A few months ago, I found myself in a drawn out stupid argument about MySQL with a self-proclaimed database expert. Along the way, I mentioned that Sabre was using MySQL in a pretty serious way. Not only did he tell me how completely wrong I was (because he knew people there and must be right), he refused to entertain the possibility of a company with such mission-critical systems using little old MySQL.
Well, Mr. Database Jackass, I’ve got news for you. You’re wrong.
A while ago, I stumbled acros a simple way of recognising such “exports”… Ask them “How much do you know about XYZ?” (Where XYZ is their topic of interest)… If they answer “nothing” or words to that effect, chances are they know nothing about it. If they answer “everything” or similar chances are that you’re dealing with one of these idiots. Most people who are really knoledgable on a subject will answer “a bit” or “a fair amount” or something like that. Why? Because these people know enough about their subject matter to know where their knowledge is weak and recognise that you next question might touch on one of these weak spots. Most self proclaimed exports don’t know enough about the subject to know that there are things they don’t know.
Jeremy Zawodny Says
Actually, I said he was a database expert, not a MySQL expert.
Nov 5th, 2003 at 5:43 pm
Jim O'Halloran Says
Thanks Jeremy, I’ve made the correction.
Jim.
Nov 6th, 2003 at 2:46 pm