Re: Tom Kyte a false idol?

"Geomancer" <pharfromhome_at_hotmail.com> wrote in message news:cf90fb89.0309121934.70a97463_at_posting.google.com...
> Umm, I'm realy confused by this Gog-like worship of Tom Kyte.
>
> To me, "Tom Kyte" is the name of a product, a figurehead for a huge
> corporate marketing machine, and it strikes me a ludicrous that a
> group of intelligent people would not be aware of this.
>
> Some folks feel that "Tom Kyte" is just another Oracle marketing tool,
> and no more real than Santa Claus.
>
> As I see it, the real credit goes to an entire staff of real DBAs (and
> the Oracle development staff) who crank-out material with his name on
> it. As a VP, he has dozens of people to produce the voluminous
> examples on his web site.
>
> One need to look no farther than his web site. During the week he
> spent at OracleWorld, hundreds of lines of answers were provided on
> his web site. No way he wrote all that at the same time he attended
> the conference.
>
> It's easy to be right when you have the resources of a multi-billion
> dollar company behind you. I was also suprised to find that Kyte is
> not "worshipped" by everyone, and there are those who say that he is
> arrogant, snitty and insulting. I've been told that he sometimes
> refers to questions as "stupid" on his asktom web site, and openly
> insults people at public appearances.
>
> Personally, I admire Steve Adams and Jonathan Lewis (and even Connor
> and HJR) far more, because they are self-made and have gained their
> reputations without the benefit of full-page ads in Oracle Magazine,
> etc.
>
> I'm sure I'll get flamed for this, but I like the self-made experts. .
> . .

You certainly don't know what your are talking about and are using such hyperbole that clearly you have some axe to grind. I've dealt with Tom and he is what is called a domain expert. He knows his stuff and clearly demonstrates it at his site and in his books. He is a scientist, if you spent 15 minutes perusing his FREE site and actually reading his answers you would see that he has a very direct and straight forward style. (make an assertion, set up a small test case, bench mark the case, evaluate the results) He is able to do this fairly rapidly not because he has untold minions at his beck and call but because the guy knows his stuff. Just read his books and look at his site. If he had other people editing the answers the answers would have a different "styles" or "prose". The might be materially the same technical answer, but how that answer is expressed, the humor he uses would not be consistent. The guy is consistent.

I have read Jonathan's book and his site and his book are outstanding. I have learned a lot from reading his material. Both men are top notch. They have earned every penny.

Clearly, you have not dealt or been a domain expert and are awed that Tom could actually respond to that many people a day. While I suspect that the guy is a workaholic; you would be surprised at what a domain expert can do within his area of expertise. It is like watching a professional athlete; the task looks like anyone could do it. Until of course you try to do it yourself.

I am not sure what axe you have to grind or if you are just a troll who desires flames. I never understand trolling; perhaps it is a preadolescent thing. My 9 year old exhibits this behavior sometimes - we take away the Game Cube - ; fortunately, he will grow out of it in the year. I guess as Bertrand Russell says children are always performing some antic as if to say "Look at me, Look at me".

Some of use are grateful for having learned from Tom's efforts (and others). If he really does have minions at his beck and call, so what.(I kind of doubt it; there would be no benefit to Oracle to state just Tom does it or many under Tom's guidance do it. Additionally, there is not a similar thing for Java end of things. ) The service he provides is worth a lot. Should he feel proud? Of course. If you don't like the guy who cares, don't take advantage of his site, don't buy his books, and don't recommend it to others. But whining like a three year old is just not cutting the mustard.

Jim Received on Sat Sep 13 2003 - 01:48:35 CDT