🚀 go-pugleaf

marick@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Brian Marick) writes:
> Actually, there is a way in which licensing does have an effect.  In
> medicine (veterinary medicine at least), to keep your license, you are
> required to get a certain amount of continuing education per year.
> That's important in a fast-changing field (which both medicine and
> software are)...

While it may be important to stay current, "continuing ed" is not the only
way--in fact, not even the best way--to do it.  The best way is simply to
work on the stuff you need to stay current on!  Beware the idea that you
can't learn unless the learning is in a formal course with some magic stamp
of approval on it.

These training courses are, often as not, just another scam blessed by the
licensing game.  Some courses get taught by people who suck up enormous fees
for presenting stuff they barely understand and certainly don't use, since
they spend all their time either on the road teaching training courses or
at home making up fancy materials with the right buzzwords.  There are also
good courses, natch, but a state stamp of approval isn't going to
distinguish good from bad.  A requirement for continuing ed whether it's
needed or not guarantees that there will be bad courses out there.
-- 
Dick Dunn     rcd@ico.isc.com -or- ico!rcd       Boulder, CO   (303)449-2870
   ...Simpler is better.