He Just Doesn't Get It

Oh boy, here we go. The verdict it in. No WMD's in Iraq. The rest of the Democratic campaign is set in stone. Ride the wave, baby.

I try to keep my political opinions to myself. And I've done a pretty good job so far. But now that we're going to hear, "I told you so" for the rest of the month, I want to point one thing out that has nothing to do with Iraq or WMD's or investigations. Just something that bothers me a little, that's all.

Technical Prowess is dedicated to pointing out how emphasizing the overall personal, social and professional skills of an individual is one key to the success of any technical organization. How this is groomed and then eventually becomes the culture in any workplace, relies on a general commitment to these skills beginning with and continuing through education. We have to change how we educate people to deal with technical situations and the people and/or customers that are affected by them. The technical team that concentrates on hiring, retaining and educating their people with Technical Prowess in mind is the company that will finally run a beautifully intertwined, dynamic and supportive technical organization.

On a larger scale, concentrating on interpersonal social skills while at the same time teaching classic subjective skills is the direction that Americans need to take education. Corporations have been concentrating on "soft-skills" for years. Somewhere along the line, they've found that 4.0 GPA's and 150+ IQ's makes for a rather boring and ineffective person in the real world. The problem is that we are just beginning to go this direction in our schools. And from what I can tell, being a dad and all, we're a long ways away.

So what's this have to do with the election? Well, 2 days ago Dick Cheney was asked about poverty and jobs during the Vice-Presidential debate. During his answer, the vice-president talked in detail about education. In response a seemingly confused Edwards said, "wasn't this question about poverty and jobs?". Yes, it was Senator Edwards. You just don't get it.