On Wed, 11 Jan 2017 16:30:07 +0000
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 16:15:41 on Wed, 11 Jan
2017, d remarked:
An industry that can "afford" to "throw way" people who are less than
50% through their useful career cannot be short of suitable workers.

I agree that there's ageism, but some of that is justified if you want
fresh minds to address new problems.

That works in a small percentage of cases. However what usually happens is
the "fresh minds" make the same old mistakes of previous generations and
just
end up re-inventing the wheel. Often poorly.

I'm not sure how that would apply to something like Blockchain. No wheel
to re-invent, there.

Since no one has any idea who invented blockchain and bitcoin there's no way
of knowing if they're a young genius or an ageing professor.

Er, it's people deploying solutions based on blockchain I was referring
to.

Deploying software has even less requirement for "fresh minds" than writing it.

--
Spud

On Thu, 12 Jan 2017 09:00:10 +0000
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at
18:41:17 on Wed, 11 Jan 2017, Arthur Figgis
remarked:

You would clearly be surprised how many naturalised foreigners there are
in the country.

If they are naturalised, are they foreigners?

No, and that's the point. People assume that everyone with a "foreign
accent" is a "foreigner".

Yes they are. If you weren't born here you're foreign accemt or no. End of.

--
Spud

On 2017-01-12 09:28:33 +0000, d said:

I'm sure there's a name for that logical fallacy.

Pythonesque?

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 16:12:45 on Wed, 11 Jan 2017,
tim... remarked:
An industry that can "afford" to "throw way" people who are less than
50% through their useful career cannot be short of suitable workers.

I agree that there's ageism, but some of that is justified if you want
fresh minds to address new problems.

That works in a small percentage of cases. However what usually happens
is
the "fresh minds" make the same old mistakes of previous generations and
just
end up re-inventing the wheel. Often poorly.

I'm not sure how that would apply to something like Blockchain. No wheel
to re-invent, there.

and how many "engineering" IT project use that

You don't think building an e-commerce platform is IT?

I didn't say that

you are responding to the thread where I said that "there isn't a shortage
of IT people in engineering"

and you said

"yes there are"

and we fell into a discussion on ageism and someone else said that by always
employing young people you waste time by their "reinventing the wheel".

and in order to counter that you came up with some example that was not
applicable to *engineering"

And that is what I picked you up on - nothing more!

Uber would be disappointed (they call themselves a tech firm).

but they ain't an engineering firm, they are an internet(ish) firm

I have never even heard of it

I bet myself you'd say that.

Well it's hardly difficult to guess. It's not used in the industry sector
with which I am experienced. You know, the one that you somehow claim to
have superior knowledge of current trends despite not working in it for 15
years.

tim

On 2017\01\12 09:11, Recliner wrote:
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at
18:41:17 on Wed, 11 Jan 2017, Arthur Figgis
remarked:

You would clearly be surprised how many naturalised foreigners there are
in the country.

If they are naturalised, are they foreigners?

No, and that's the point. People assume that everyone with a "foreign
accent" is a "foreigner".

Some people also assume that of anyone with dark skin.

White Americans tend to call black Londoners "African Americans"!

On Thu, 12 Jan 2017 11:32:45 +0000, Basil Jet
wrote:

On 2017\01\12 09:11, Recliner wrote:
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at
18:41:17 on Wed, 11 Jan 2017, Arthur Figgis
remarked:

You would clearly be surprised how many naturalised foreigners there are
in the country.

If they are naturalised, are they foreigners?

No, and that's the point. People assume that everyone with a "foreign
accent" is a "foreigner".

Some people also assume that of anyone with dark skin.

White Americans tend to call black Londoners "African Americans"!

I hadn't heard that one! Of course, I've also made the mistake of
calling black Americans Afro-Americans.

On Thu, 12 Jan 2017 11:58:23 +0000
Recliner wrote:
On Thu, 12 Jan 2017 11:32:45 +0000, Basil Jet
wrote:

On 2017\01\12 09:11, Recliner wrote:
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at
18:41:17 on Wed, 11 Jan 2017, Arthur Figgis
remarked:

You would clearly be surprised how many naturalised foreigners there are
in the country.

If they are naturalised, are they foreigners?

No, and that's the point. People assume that everyone with a "foreign
accent" is a "foreigner".

Some people also assume that of anyone with dark skin.

White Americans tend to call black Londoners "African Americans"!

I hadn't heard that one! Of course, I've also made the mistake of
calling black Americans Afro-Americans.

Obviously I'm not keeping up with the exponentially rising curve of
perceived insults any more. What have they decided is wrong with afro-america
now?

--
Spud

In message , at 09:28:33 on Thu, 12 Jan
2017, d remarked:
On Wed, 11 Jan 2017 16:27:40 +0000
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 16:11:57 on Wed, 11 Jan
2017, d remarked:
Some people are just no good at learning foreign languages

after 200 hours (and that is a lot) of lessons I was still finding spoken
German incomprehensible

To be fair I found german hard too. French was a lot easier and I
managed to
get myself up to a basic conversational level just by teaching
myself on the
tube ride in the mornings. Perhaps you should have picked a different
country
to live in?

Difficulty in picking up foreign languages (or even English when an
infant) is one of the classic symptoms of even high-functioning autism
sufferers.

I think thats a bit unfair. Some people are just bad at languages in the way
that others just don't get maths no matter how much effort they put in.

It' not "unfair", it's a condition with symptoms, just like colour
blindness, dyslexia or dyspraxia. Not everyone can be good at
everything, nor should we blame them, it's just the way they are.

Being bad at languages is not a sign of medical disability.

It's a common symptom of one medical condition.

I know its trendy to make everything a medical condition but this is
just an absurd extrapolation.

You are over-reading what I wrote.

Because autistics are bad at languages doesn't mean everyone who is bad at
languages is autistic. I'm sure there's a name for that logical fallacy.

As there is also a name for refuting a proposition I didn't make.
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 10:57:04 on Thu, 12 Jan
2017, tim... remarked:

Uber would be disappointed (they call themselves a tech firm).

but they ain't an engineering firm, they are an internet(ish) firm

Hmm, no such thing as software engineering, eh?

I have never even heard of it

I bet myself you'd say that.

Well it's hardly difficult to guess. It's not used in the industry
sector with which I am experienced. You know, the one that you somehow
claim to have superior knowledge of current trends despite not working
in it for 15 years.

You don't have to be a Michelin chef to be a food critic. Remember that
next time you criticise a soggy burger.
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 09:32:07 on Thu, 12 Jan
2017, d remarked:

Since no one has any idea who invented blockchain and bitcoin there's no way
of knowing if they're a young genius or an ageing professor.

Er, it's people deploying solutions based on blockchain I was referring
to.

Deploying software has even less requirement for "fresh minds" than writing it.

Deploying is not the same as installing a shrink-wrap application. It
includes a very great deal of system integration work, as well as
understanding the various building blocks (such as the API of the
Blockchain project).
--
Roland Perry