Theoretical vs Practical Knowledge [was: Re: Opportunity for Usability Evaluation]

[Roy S. Rapoport]

Gwendolynn ferch Elydyr <gwen at reptiles.org> wrote:
> The major failing of a person who only has pragmatic experience is
> that they only know what they've encountered. My classic example
> for this is the wonderful SAGE-II/III that I had working for me,
> who managed to tar up and remove lib, because he was completely
> unaware of it's purpose!  (not really a surprise there - it's not
> knowledge that the average hands on sysadmin would need to know).

I think the key is not simply pragmatic experience, but enough pragmatic
experience and the mindset to extrapolate from it.  In this case, "if the
operating system install put a large directory there, make sure you know
what it's used for before you remove it to save space."

Not to mention that the follow up question  to any sort of "what happens if I do
<this>?" should be "what happens if I I do <this> in a lab?"

As for removing lib ... I wonder what one would expect "the average hands
on sysadmin" to know.  I figure at minimum, no matter where on the
expertise ladder you are, you should know well enough not to delete a
directory whose function you do not clearly understand, no?

-roy