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.

Mythical beasts operate in a different world to the rest of us. That might explain your confusion

> 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.

Perhaps 'intelligent people' are able to use a marketing resource which contains useful technological information effectively. Nothing wrong with marketing efforts if they help you gain value from the product.

> Some folks feel that "Tom Kyte" is just another Oracle marketing tool,
> and no more real than Santa Claus.

Presumably not the people who have met him.

> 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.

It may be true, but given his record of attributing answers to others where appropriate , including members of the Oracle development staff, I doubt it is significantly true.

> It's easy to be right when you have the resources of a multi-billion
> dollar company behind you.

Remarkably easy to be wrong when you have the resources of a multi-billion dollar company behind you as well. It is much harder to be wrong if you set up tests, test and refine opinions as a result. Call it scientific method, rationalism or whatever it works well and anyone can do it.

> 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.

I've never seen Tom insult people in writing, it seems somewhat unlikely that he would be different in public. I have seen him disagree with people and demonstrate why. This is hardly a bad thing. Sometime people are wrong, agreeing about what we disagree with and agreeing how to resolve it is a good step towards advancing the level of knowledge in the community.

> 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. .

No such thing as a self-made expert. Yes in all things you need to take responsibility for your own knowledge and development but no-one is entirely self taught. For what its worth a list of people that have contributed to my knowledge of Oracle would be

Mrs Phillips,Q,Kevin Loney,Don Burleson,Connor McDonald,Julian Dyke,Richard Miller, Tom Kyte,HJR,Mogens Norgaard,Tanel Poder, Jonathan Lewis,Norman Dunbar,Daniel Morgan,Sybrand,Jim Kennedy,Nuno, Steve Feuerstein and many more nameless ones. I don't worship any of them but people who say useful and testable stuff add to the sum of knowledge. I'd be prepared to bet that your other self-made experts have even longer lists (and have learned shedloads more than I have), and that plenty of people you have never heard of have worthwhile contributions to make to the community in the various forums that exist.

The ad-hominem attack on Tom is unacceptable, the idea that some Names are more worthwhile than others is also unacceptable. Some ideas are right and some wrong and some true sometimes but not always. Test the idea and decide accordingly. The only thing I would mention is that those who tend to be right also tend to be those that hypothesize and test, not methings a co-incidence.

-- 
Niall Litchfield
Oracle DBA
Audit Commission UK