The Few, the Proud, the Geeks
February 1, 2010 by Steve HannafordPosted in: In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, Security
U.S. National Security is threatened, and only one group can save it — computer geeks.
That’s the conclusion of the US Defense Department, according to a recent story in Wired Magazine.
The lack of serious computer skills (more than required to tweet or play Grand Theft Auto) is making us more and more vulnerable in a world in which cyber warfare looks likely to be even more important than hand-to-hand combat.
And there is a real crisis. The Computer Research Association has reported computer science enrollment dropped 43% between 2003 and 2006. The ability to engineer and especially to protect data resources is diminishing, even as it is becomes more crucial.
The upshot is that the US Department of Defense is working on programs top encourage teenagers to take up the study of Computer Science. What the country needs is fewer lawyers and video experts, and more geeks with the ability to stand guard over our cyber resources.
Tags: Department of Defense, geeks, students
February 3rd, 2010 at 1:02 pm
Interesting! Mathematics is very important especially Number Theory the study of primes. I think the PROMYS program is excellent to address this issue.
February 3rd, 2010 at 1:09 pm
Finally! The nerds get their moment in the sun!
Seriously: What’s really lacking in today’s educational process is teaching people to think for themselves, and teaching problem-solving skills.
In the IT industry, over the last 10 years, the trend is for college graduates to enter the workforce depending on Google to solve all of their problems. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been on a troubleshooting call and someone says: “Let me Google for it”. Google can be an excellent resource, but only AFTER you’ve defined the problem. Without a clear understanding of the problem, the “google” approach is the shotgun approach, where you throw everything at it until something works.
In my experience, it’s a very rare ability for someone to take the time to think about a problem, and apply logic, such as “if A connects to B, and B to C, and if a connection originates from A and doesn’t make it to C, then the problem is B, or one of the connections to B”. It seems simple, but I’ve been on call after call where people just start flipping switches without an understanding of the consequences. Then, when the problem recurs, no one knows how to fix it.
It seems that the learning institutions, including High Schools need to be teaching more problem-solving than anything else, including Computer Science. Someone with good problem-solving skills can be dropped in to almost any situation, and stands a good chance of creating a successful outcome.
I agree that a solid foundational knowledge is important, but the gate-keepers are a different skill set and personality: They enjoy fixing things, and are willing to stay up all night doing it. They thrive on the adrenaline rush obtained from that “aha” moment after figuring something out. They don’t give a flip about why punch cards used to be important, nor about how the work of Alan Turing applies to modern virtualization. The folks who need to be guarding the gate need to be motivated, well-equipped with good problem-solving skills, possess a basic knowledge of the subject that they are guarding, and need to be well-armed with the latest technology.
“Classical” Computer Science is for the folks who develop the latest and greatest technologies, but not for the folks on the front line.
Ironically, one of the best tools that teaches problem-solving is video games. One of the problems that I see today is that video games are WAY too easy, because, for the most part, they cater to an audience whose attention span is like that of a flea.
When I was a teenager, I remember playing quest games that could take me a week just to figure out one puzzle. And guess what? If you failed to make a certain choice early on, it might affect your ability to even SOLVE the puzzle. And, unless you had a save point prior to the “gotcha” point, you had to start the game all over again. Beating those games required attention to detail, creative thinking, and LOTS of determination…. kind of like the real world.
Games today are much more sophisticated, but not nearly as difficult, and don’t build those real-world skills.
So maybe what we need are better video games.
February 3rd, 2010 at 2:04 pm
Bob,
Well said. We know the educational system is broken – spending vast amounts of (wasted) time and money on “politically correct” topics and feel-good “self esteem” (without any actual basis in accomplishment, ability, or actual learning, which is where self-esteem should come from) which is squeezing out true education andresulting in far too little teaching of kids the actual productive life skills like “critical thinking” reasoning, reading and language skills, math and true science.
On top of that, why would students even consider a career in a field that is now being outsourced overseas by the thousands every day? We’ve already hobbled America’s physical production and manufacturing capabilities by offshoring most of it – now we’re doing the same with her intellectual properties and capabilities.
(Below will no doubt follow a blast of name-calling and derogatory comments about these comments, with no substantiating facts, logical reasoning, nor constructive alternatives. We expect it these days. Which only further demonstrates my point.)
February 4th, 2010 at 11:51 am
Gosh, maybe the market has spoken and people listened. If computer skills are in such demand then as the saying goes;”you get laid or paid”. Alas, Dilbert is not a joke, that’s why it’s so funny. If the stereotype of geeks are single men sitting in cubicals eating chips and drinking pop for all hours of the day working on a computer with a boss screaming for results, boy that sounds fun. The pay also dropped for the average engineer as engineering jobs went to China and India. Why would people in their right mind that are smart enought to program complex machines be so stupid as to ignore economic reality. Now for the article. They want “serious computer skills”, this means the best of the best are only wanted. what about the engineers that are just average that come out of engineering school? Come back with five years of experience and/or a PHD and you MAY meet our minimum requirments? Perspective CS students are not going to spend ten years of their lives to qualify for a job that if it hasn’t been sent overseas, will likely pay less, and have employers expecting more. 43% drop in CS enrollment maybe an understatement. Go back to econ 101 folks.