Why would you be in trouble with your Musicology degree? You're not the only
one out there, I have one too, and I can only agree with your analysis
below.
Kind regards
--
Sybrand Bakker
Senior Oracle DBA
to reply remove '-verwijderdit' from my e-mail address
PS As you seem to have specialised in the same field of Musicology, I would
be interested to hear more of what you exactly did.
"Madison Pruet" <mpruet_at_attbi.com> wrote in message
news:3CD40C8C.A7A6BC6A_at_attbi.com...
> > Opps - guess I'm in trouble with my Musicology degree..... ;-)
> >
> > Actually while Chris has a point, I think that with the way computers
have been
> > changing over the years and such, that anyone that has been forced in
college to
> > do research or self learning of any kind is going to be a far more
valuable
> > employee than a person simply having a degree in C.E.
> >
> > I know that many folks have often mentioned to me that they have
observed that
> > musicians have tended to make good programmers. I have often thought
about that
> > and pondered as to why that would be. I've come to the following
conclusions
> >
> > 1) abstract thought patterns...
> > Musicians are constantly thinking in terms of an artificial system.
They deal
> > with a base-7 world which has very specific rules based on style and
period.
> > They know for instance that what appears to be an A-flat 7th chord might
really
> > be a modified d-sharp chord acting as a raised II in C-major (i.e.
German 6th),
> > but the same notes could be a Domant-7th chord in D-flat Major. Same
notes -
> > different functionality - played differently - acts differently- etc.
So for a
> > good musician, there is a tremendous analysis that is done simply in the
act of
> > performing a piece.
> >
> > 2) Having to memorize a full hour's worth of music...
> > Most music schools require a solo memorized recital for each student
each year.
> > You can never short-change the effort required to memorize a whole hour
of
> > music. In my case, I was an organist, so I was dealing with polyphonic
music -
> > four voices in the hands - one in the pedals. That's a huge effort. In
order
> > to accomplish that, the musician is having to constantly analyze the
stuff -
> > find patterns, make logic out of chaos, etc. This is especially a
problem when
> > you start dealing with set theory based compositions of the mid-20th
contrary.
> > (Yes - we had to do set theory work in music school....)
> >
> > 3) Creative work
> > Improvisation ---- ARGGGGGG --- Take a style - improvise in that style.
Follow
> > the correct style --- etc. It's much more than simply playing a whole
bunch of
> > notes.
> >
> > 4) Self-teaching and research...
> > In my case it was having to study 16/17th contrary treatises. - Had to
teach
> > myself German first..... Then had to figure out what the word
"Schlectes"
> > really meant in 16th century Thrungia. --- The ability to do self
teaching is
> > incredibly important in C.E. work. I guarantee you that if you can make
sense
> > of all of that, then you can make sense of most C.E. treatises. Quite
honestly
> > - I found Knuth rather easy to understand after having gone through all
of the
> > 16th century treatises.... ;-)
> >
> > Chris Weiss wrote:
> >
> > > I wasn't being the least bit silly.
> > >
> > > Unless I am mistaken I don't think complexity theory and algorithmic
> > > analysis are part of the music or animal husbandry degree programs. I
am
> > > not saying that you have to be in college to learn fundamental
computer
> > > science, but it is more difficult to learn the basic theory outside of
a
> > > classroom setting.
> > >
> > > Being an "expert" in the syntax of a language and having good problem
> > > solving skills may make someone an effective programmer, but being
only a
> > > programmer without the underlying framework of a computer science
degree can
> > > be a limiting factor. There are always exceptions, but I am talking
about
> > > trends and not exceptions.
> > >
> > > Would you hire a self-taught statistician? or a self taught mechanical
> > > engineer? A programmer is to a computer scientist what a cad cam
operator
> > > is to a mechanical engineer. There is overlap between a programmer
and a
> > > computer scientist just as there is between the cad cam operator and
the
> > > engineer, but there is a fundamental gap between the former and the
latter
> > > in both categories. Learning through experience to craft a well
written
> > > program is not the same as having the cross training in engineering
and math
> > > that most computer science students have had.
> > >
> > > I have worked with many good programmers who could solve the every day
> > > problem that crossed their desk quickly and elegantly, and they could
often
> > > solve some of the more difficult problems after a few years of
experience.
> > > However, I once saw an excellent programmer waste weeks on a problem
that
> > > was clearly NP-complete, meaning there was no polynomial algorithm.
He was
> > > an English major. Our CS intern at the time looked at the problem for
half
> > > a day and properly identified it as exponential. We hired the intern
after
> > > graduation, and she made more progress in her first year on the job
than the
> > > English major had in five years. The senior programmer wrote more
lines of
> > > code per week that the former intern had, but he lacked the training
> > > necessary to solve some of the problems the recent grad was able to
deal
> > > with.
> > >
> > > I am sure we could go tit for tat with anecdotes. However, having
worked
> > > with several hundred programmers on everything from small teams to
casts of
> > > hundreds, I think that *IN GENERAL* there is no substitute for a
computer
> > > science degree.
> > >
> > > --
> > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> > > Chris Weiss
> > > mailto:chris_at_hpdbe.com
> > > www.hpdbe.com
> > > High Performance Database Engineering
> > > Available for long and short term contracts
> > >
> > > "Larry Linson" <larry.linson_at_ntpcug.org> wrote in message
> > > news:8WEA8.4277$Dx3.2845_at_nwrddc02.gnilink.net...
> > > > Don't be silly. One of the best programmers I ever knew had a degree
in
> > > > Music, another had a degree in Animal Husbandry, and I have known
many,
> > > many
> > > > other competent and capable people who had no degree at all. One
> > > degree-less
> > > > colleague held his own in the Research Division of a major computing
> > > > company.
> > > >
> > > > In fact, quite a few years ago, we cringed whenever a new-hire had a
> > > > Computer Science degree, because the probability was high that
he/she
> > > would
> > > > expect to be assigned to write The Compiler That Saved Computing,
and even
> > > > though I worked for the largest computer manufacturer of the day,
there
> > > were
> > > > precious few compiler-writing jobs available -- especially for
entry-level
> > > > CS grads.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> >
> >
>
Received on Sat May 04 2002 - 12:16:15 CDT
