JimBowie1958
Old Fogey
- Sep 25, 2011
- 63,590
- 16,753
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There are professions that are essentially academic in nature and tend to run afoul of the many limitations and pitfalls of an Academe world view. These limitations and pitfalls involve the presumption of unjustifiable axioms, the uncertainty of abstract testing, and the generational bias against new ideas disruptive to the consensus of the Establishment of that profession.
As an IT engineer I have seen this numerous times when a person would move from an academic environment instructor to a real world shop where results have to be shown and customer criteria met. IT takes some time for the former academic to adjust to meeting more objective standards instead of merely academic agreement. What was considered axiomatic in academia is not so in the real world, the testing needs to reflect real world conditions as much as possible prior to rollout, and no one cares if this violates Boyce-Codd standards or not anyway.
The biggest limitation though is the axiomatic assumptions that are invisible barriers to generating plausible solutions to real world problems. It is hard to argue with 'it simply must be true.'
The political establishment in our nations capital is full of academians. People are considered qualified to lead if they have the right degree from the right universities with the perfect set of instructors, and little regard is actually given to the consideration of 'Has this person ever actually done such things in the real world?' And the ideas and arguments of the un-sheep-skinned doer is dismissed in favor of the academic who has written many peer reviewed papers on the topic and has a mile long resume of teaching in a dozen places, as if that were the equivalent of doing something.
They often say in DC that so-and-so amateurs are playing checkers while the academians are playing chess, but both are games that work within a set of rules. The best Doers of history are those who changed the rules to their favor, the Julius Caesars, the Napoleons, the Luthers and Teslas. While the academics are arguing to the infitessimal degree about whether this strategy beats that one, or if some ancient writer actually said this or that, Engineers are moving on building bridges over dangerous waters, laying roads through wilderness and achieving the impossible. The Taj Mahal was not something that was the result of a committee of academians working together, no, it was the dream of a heart-broken lover who had conquered nations and built armies.
Donald Trump is a builder, a Doer, not some academic letter wrangling snob. He has achieved what he has achieved by speaking plainly to common people, actually hearing their concerns, warnings and demands and MEETING THEM in REAL WORLD conditions.
The academe of DC will never be able to understand the actions and speech of such men as these men have no regard for the shibboleths and special interests that lock the academic into inaction. While the academics play chess, men like Trump are playing Civilization V.
And these academics will always mock men like Trump for pursuing what they know that they will never be able to do, slam him as incompetent for even attempting what they all 'know' to be impossible Gordian knots of Reality that men like Trump simply cut through.
And the academics will always hate men like Trump for doing it.
As an IT engineer I have seen this numerous times when a person would move from an academic environment instructor to a real world shop where results have to be shown and customer criteria met. IT takes some time for the former academic to adjust to meeting more objective standards instead of merely academic agreement. What was considered axiomatic in academia is not so in the real world, the testing needs to reflect real world conditions as much as possible prior to rollout, and no one cares if this violates Boyce-Codd standards or not anyway.
The biggest limitation though is the axiomatic assumptions that are invisible barriers to generating plausible solutions to real world problems. It is hard to argue with 'it simply must be true.'
The political establishment in our nations capital is full of academians. People are considered qualified to lead if they have the right degree from the right universities with the perfect set of instructors, and little regard is actually given to the consideration of 'Has this person ever actually done such things in the real world?' And the ideas and arguments of the un-sheep-skinned doer is dismissed in favor of the academic who has written many peer reviewed papers on the topic and has a mile long resume of teaching in a dozen places, as if that were the equivalent of doing something.
They often say in DC that so-and-so amateurs are playing checkers while the academians are playing chess, but both are games that work within a set of rules. The best Doers of history are those who changed the rules to their favor, the Julius Caesars, the Napoleons, the Luthers and Teslas. While the academics are arguing to the infitessimal degree about whether this strategy beats that one, or if some ancient writer actually said this or that, Engineers are moving on building bridges over dangerous waters, laying roads through wilderness and achieving the impossible. The Taj Mahal was not something that was the result of a committee of academians working together, no, it was the dream of a heart-broken lover who had conquered nations and built armies.
Donald Trump is a builder, a Doer, not some academic letter wrangling snob. He has achieved what he has achieved by speaking plainly to common people, actually hearing their concerns, warnings and demands and MEETING THEM in REAL WORLD conditions.
The academe of DC will never be able to understand the actions and speech of such men as these men have no regard for the shibboleths and special interests that lock the academic into inaction. While the academics play chess, men like Trump are playing Civilization V.
And these academics will always mock men like Trump for pursuing what they know that they will never be able to do, slam him as incompetent for even attempting what they all 'know' to be impossible Gordian knots of Reality that men like Trump simply cut through.
And the academics will always hate men like Trump for doing it.
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