e-skills: Forget maths and science

There's a big push to create more mathematicians and scientists. We need these people to drive the European economy. But we don't need them in IT.

In fact the last thing we need is more propeller-heads. The IT industry needs to get its act together in terms of:

• Where it sits in the value chain
• Its PR

Recruiting more high IQ reasoning machines is not what the industry needs.

I know this for a fact. I was trained as an astrophysicist. It was a long time ago, when the 'in vogue' and controversial at the time theory around the faculty was that the earth was not at the centre of the universe. So I have had some time to partially reengineer my own DNA.

Bottom line we need creativity and innovation in the IT industry not carbon-based computer extensions.

Comments

[Dave Timoney]

Ade, I think that business expertise (of which e-skills is a subset) needs more understanding of the scientific method, not less.

Having been trained as an historian, I should point out that I think very few holders of an IT degree really understand the empirical approach, so this is not about having a certificate of propellor-headedness.

As a CIO, I am only too well aware that techy skills out of context are largely useless to business, and that what you need is to ally this with process and people insight; however, I also know that good business analysis is data-driven and good decision-making is evidence-based.

Most business decisions display a degree of intellectual rigour little better than voodoo.

As the old saw has it: "success is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration." Most of that sweat is down to the hard yards of testing, data-gathering and more testing.

I agree with you that this is a PR issue. IT needs to convince the business that it is an authority in method, not just the utility guy.

[Ade McCormack]

Great counter argument Dave. And given our very different academic backgrounds it is not surprising we see the situation from opposite sides.

I agree with your comment about IT degrees, which generally prepare students to be IT lecturers / research scientists, rather than industry-ready professionals.

My experience of mathematical scientists is that they have to be completely overhauled to be industry-ready as their self taught programming skills lead to software that is both clever and unmaintainable.

I guess I am making the case for a more socially rounded individual. But recognise by your argument that if we swing in the opposite direction we will lose what little intellectual rigour we have today.