Paradise by the Dashborad Light...
Last night... while enjoying a cold beverage and a handful of chips with attendees at the conference something special happened… I found Paradise by the Dashboard Light… any association to my dear friend Meatloaf is purely coincidental.
I was doing my usual college professor thing... chatting up two auto manufacturing resources... trying to learn more about their jobs... skill sets... trends in technology... when my new found hero started ranting about a presentation he had attended… in the midst of which I heard… star schema… normalization… I nearly dropped my bottle… I chocked up…my eyes teared… a lump came to my throat… I just heard two of the most beautiful words ever uttered to me in the course of a conversation.
Let me explain...
I was in the midst of a geek… not a geek who wore jeans… a holey t-shirt… had lost his razor… believed in a bathing optional lifestyle. No… this was a big paycheck… imported beer… dressed like a winner… making a multi-billion dollar company’s data rock solid as a Hummer… he could marry my daughter… Alpha Geek.
Why is this so over the top cool to me?
Because... as an IT professor this is the rock star I have been trying to find for years. You may not know this, but one of the challenges in Computer Science (CS) and IT in general is this perception by other colleges… faculty… students… and industry… of the CS - IT geek… void of personality… Mountain Dew junkie… can’t get a date... third day in my Green Day t-shirt… soap anyone… brainiac nerd.
Now... here I was in the midst of an Armani geek… the antithesis of this stereotype. To be truthful… if it weren’t illegal, immoral, and just a bad idea I might have snatched him… put a bow around his neck… and carted him back to my school for an extended visit with my CS and IT groups.
I think he could teach my students a lot about the IT... how it works in industry… their role… expectations… you know... life in that mystical land so few of us (in my buiness) ever visit.
I know that some of my colleagues are going to disagree with my thoughts and generalizations. Some will think this is several hundred words wasted… silly… negative… Some may even be offended… but this is academia… a bastion of ideas… a citadel of learning… a fortress of exchange. We can handle it...
As for me… my learners back at DSU... last night I found paradise by the Dashboard Light and my quest to inculcate you into the business world will continue... with new found vigor. And to my rock star… Alpha Geek… if you ever want to share your world with my students… the door is open… give me a call.
I was doing my usual college professor thing... chatting up two auto manufacturing resources... trying to learn more about their jobs... skill sets... trends in technology... when my new found hero started ranting about a presentation he had attended… in the midst of which I heard… star schema… normalization… I nearly dropped my bottle… I chocked up…my eyes teared… a lump came to my throat… I just heard two of the most beautiful words ever uttered to me in the course of a conversation.
Let me explain...
I was in the midst of a geek… not a geek who wore jeans… a holey t-shirt… had lost his razor… believed in a bathing optional lifestyle. No… this was a big paycheck… imported beer… dressed like a winner… making a multi-billion dollar company’s data rock solid as a Hummer… he could marry my daughter… Alpha Geek.
Why is this so over the top cool to me?
Because... as an IT professor this is the rock star I have been trying to find for years. You may not know this, but one of the challenges in Computer Science (CS) and IT in general is this perception by other colleges… faculty… students… and industry… of the CS - IT geek… void of personality… Mountain Dew junkie… can’t get a date... third day in my Green Day t-shirt… soap anyone… brainiac nerd.
Now... here I was in the midst of an Armani geek… the antithesis of this stereotype. To be truthful… if it weren’t illegal, immoral, and just a bad idea I might have snatched him… put a bow around his neck… and carted him back to my school for an extended visit with my CS and IT groups.
I think he could teach my students a lot about the IT... how it works in industry… their role… expectations… you know... life in that mystical land so few of us (in my buiness) ever visit.
I know that some of my colleagues are going to disagree with my thoughts and generalizations. Some will think this is several hundred words wasted… silly… negative… Some may even be offended… but this is academia… a bastion of ideas… a citadel of learning… a fortress of exchange. We can handle it...
As for me… my learners back at DSU... last night I found paradise by the Dashboard Light and my quest to inculcate you into the business world will continue... with new found vigor. And to my rock star… Alpha Geek… if you ever want to share your world with my students… the door is open… give me a call.
