WOW little things can make a huge difference

[TripathFan]

Some of the tiny startups I know are tackling problems of fascinating complexity, scope, and difficulty. They will face inevitable corporate responsibility if they're successful, but I doubt they'd consider themselves any less responsible for having only a few employees rather than many. A small company does not mean small ideas or small burdens!

I feel like I am talking to a brick wall here. While some tiny startups might be tackling prolems of relatively large scope and difficulty, it does not compare to what CEOs of most large companies are dealing with on regular basis.

Note -- to use your example -- that the current CEO of Facebook was the same CEO of the tiny startup that became Facebook.

So? It only shows that a CEO of a small company could be succesfull on a much larger scale, which I never argued wasn't the case. You're grasping at straws here.

Really?

Really?

Are you trying to be funny? Or are you questioning my place of origin or my lack of knowledge of North American music industry? I don't get it.

In my field, some of the most notable contributors do not have PhDs, and those who do tend not to make the mistake of conflating actual scientific ability with degree awards.

What are you on about? Nowhere did I claim otherwise. FYI, where I come from, one can only be called a "scientist" if he/she possesses at least a Ph.D. Just some food for thought.

Also, just because some notable contributors in your field do not have Ph.D. degrees, does not mean that any B.S. degree holder from a state university is automatically on the same level as an MIT professor. Is it possible that a lecturer at a random 4-year university has a higher IQ and more high quality publications than an Associate Professor from MIT? Sure (although extremely unlikely). But most of the time, the opposite is going to be the case.

It is amusing how defensive you get over this. Did some of my examples ring too close to home?

 

[sqlsavior]

As far as evidence for an argument is concerned, appealing to authority in the abstract is even less meaningful than a specific appeal to a specific authority.

 

[DaveVoorhis]

I feel like I am talking to a brick wall here. While some tiny startups might be tackling prolems of relatively large scope and difficulty, it does not compare to what CEOs of most large companies are dealing with on regular basis.

Based on what?

So? It only shows that a CEO of a small company could be succesfull on a much larger scale, which I never argued wasn't the case. You're grasping at straws here.

I was pointing out a fact. You appear to have a rather limited understanding of the challenges of running a company, the nature of which are affected by size but are not limited to it. Indeed, the challenges of scale in running a large company are generally distributed among a professional team -- despite the monarchical image a prominent figurehead may like to project -- whereas a startup typically burdens a few inexperienced individuals with the uncertainty of innovation, the challenges of finding funding, and the day-to-day difficulties of managing operations under a cloud of uncertainty and personal indebtedness. How many large company leaders put their personal finances, let alone their homes, on the line?

Many startups do.

The specific challenges certainly vary between running large and small companies, but the personal experience of stress and cognitive burden are arguably the same for both, if not more so for the small company leader.

Are you trying to be funny? Or are you questioning my place of origin or my lack of knowledge of North American music industry? I don't get it.

I was expressing incredulity at your responses. They appeared to be trolling. Were you trolling?

FYI, where I come from, one can only be called a "scientist" if he/she possesses at least a Ph.D. Just some food for thought.

Where I've lived (three countries), "scientist" refers to one's profession rather than the level of one's degree.

Also, just because some notable contributors in your field do not have Ph.D. degrees, does not mean that any B.S. degree holder from a state university is automatically on the same level as an MIT professor.

What do you mean by "same level"?

I don't see what contributors in my field not having PhDs has to do with "any B.S. degree holder from a state university" and MIT professors. Could you explain?

Is it possible that a lecturer at a random 4-year university has a higher IQ and more high quality publications than an Associate Professor from MIT?

Not only is it possible, it's quite common. MIT's reputation means it has probably attracted fewer academics than a typical state school who don't produce four-star publications, but publication quality, quantity, and even publication itself aren't the only means of academic contribution. There are many ways to contribute; not all of them are conventional publication and often a "random 4-year university" provides more opportunity for personal achievement -- with fewer distracting demands, like being expected to generate some minimum amount of research income and publication output, whether it's in your area of interest or not -- than an "elite" university.

I'm not clear what IQ has to do with anything.

It is amusing how defensive you get over this. Did some of my examples ring too close to home?

My response wasn't intended to be defensive. I was merely pointing out facts.

 

[loopstick]

I was expressing incredulity at your responses. They appeared to be trolling. Were you trolling?

I don't think he's a troll. I think he's a sock puppet. But he's not one of mine.

 

[DaveVoorhis]

I don't think he's a troll. I think he's a sock puppet.

Whatever else he might be, he's definitely anti-Audiokarma, because he's been all attitude, no audio.

 

[TripathFan]

I was going to post a long reply, but then I saw this (shakes head):

Not only is it possible, it's quite common. MIT's reputation means it has probably attracted fewer academics than a typical state school who don't produce four-star publications, but publication quality, quantity, and even publication itself aren't the only means of academic contribution. There are many ways to contribute; not all of them are conventional publication and often a "random 4-year university" provides more opportunity for personal achievement -- with fewer distracting demands, like being expected to generate some minimum amount of research income and publication output, whether it's in your area of interest or not -- than an "elite" university.

People who believe this are usually the ones who at some point in their lives dreamt of attending a top school but couldn't get in. You obviously don't have any experience of what it is like to be an undergraduate/graduate student at an "elite" university, otherwise you wouldn't have posted this rubbish.


Back to the main argument. It is not about CEOs, MIT, Harward, or Ph.Ds. It is about the fact that, most of the time, the place where one accomplished something matters. Period.

You can keep telling yourself that it is not true and write long essays defending your beliefs until the cows come home, it won't really change anything.

 

[loopstick]

You obviously don't have any experience of what it is like to be an undergraduate/graduate student at an "elite" university

What's it like getting a swirly at an "elite" university?

 

[DaveVoorhis]

... most of the time, the place where one accomplished something matters ...

To what? To whom?

 

[frankbooth]

I love reading the driveling of blowhards. It's entertaining but I'm not sure why. Maybe it's the pompousness ..

 

[Njoy-Music]

I came here looking for a happy list of things or ideas about small things that made a difference in someone's system.

 

[TripathFan]

To what? To whom?

First and foremost to yourself.

It is amusing how predictable you are. I'll give you one last example which should be very easy to understand. Let's look at two professional football (soccer for North Americans) teams - one is competing in League Two and another is in EPL. Now let's take a fictional character, Tupoe Chmo, who is a player in a League Two club, and Mesut Ozil of Arsenal.

They are both professional football players. They are both gainfully employed and love what they do. They can both kick the ball and nutmeg other players. Yet, one regularly proves himself against the best footballers in the world and is famous worldwide while the other is stuck in League Two and is virtually unknown. Further, one of them is paid more than $10 million USD and another one earns about $80,000 USD. I'll let you figure out which is which. Please feel free to substitute Mesut Ozil with any Arsenal/Chelsea/Barcelona/etc. starting 11 player if you'd like, it won't change much.

Whether you want to admit it or not, there is a huge difference between scoring 4 goals in one match against a League Two club and scoring 4 goals in one match against a top EPL team since the latter is much more difficult to accomplish. Similarly, there is a significant difference between working as a "network administrator" in a small, unknown company managing their single Winbuntu server and being an actual network administrator managing multiple Unix servers in a Fortune 100 company.

This is why a reasonable person will not claim that a place where one accomplished something is never relevant.


Tupoe Chmo, sorry, I mean DaveVoorhis, I reckon you will quote each sentence of this post separately (which you seem to enjoy doing) and post more nonsense to make yourself feel better, even though it won't make an iota of difference. That's fine by me. Actually, I have some new stuff that you could use: "League Two players are just as skilled as their EPL/Serie A counterparts. They are all professional footballers after all!" and "Despite its 2400+ world ranking, Brandon University is an MIT of Canada". You are welcome.

Bye Felicia!

 

[TripathFan]

I love reading the driveling of blowhards. It's entertaining but I'm not sure why. Maybe it's the pompousness ..

It was not my intent to brag or boast in any way, shape or form. In fact, I can't find any post of mine in this thread that would suggest otherwise.

 

[Mister Pig]

First and foremost to yourself.

It is amusing how predictable you are. I'll give you one last example which should be very easy to understand. Let's look at two professional football (soccer for North Americans) teams - one is competing in League Two and another is in EPL. Now let's take a fictional character, Tupoe Chmo, who is a player in a League Two club, and Mesut Ozil of Arsenal.

They are both professional football players. They are both gainfully employed and love what they do. They can both kick the ball and nutmeg other players. Yet, one regularly proves himself against the best footballers in the world and is famous worldwide while the other is stuck in League Two and is virtually unknown. Further, one of them is paid more than $10 million USD and another one earns about $80,000 USD. I'll let you figure out which is which. Please feel free to substitute Mesut Ozil with any Arsenal/Chelsea/Barcelona/etc. starting 11 player if you'd like, it won't change much.

Whether you want to admit it or not, there is a huge difference between scoring 4 goals in one match against a League Two club and scoring 4 goals in one match against a top EPL team since the latter is much more difficult to accomplish. Similarly, there is a significant difference between working as a "network administrator" in a small, unknown company managing their single Winbuntu server and being an actual network administrator managing multiple Unix servers in a Fortune 100 company.

This is why a reasonable person will not claim that a place where one accomplished something is never relevant.


Tupoe Chmo, sorry, I mean DaveVoorhis, I reckon you will quote each sentence of this post separately (which you seem to enjoy doing) and post more nonsense to make yourself feel better, even though it won't make an iota of difference. That's fine by me. Actually, I have some new stuff that you could use: "League Two players are just as skilled as their EPL/Serie A counterparts. They are all professional footballers after all!" and "Despite its 2400+ world ranking, Brandon University is an MIT of Canada". You are welcome.

Bye Felicia!

Wait a minute. Are you inferring that soccer is an actual sport that someone cares about? And they even get paid real money?

Fascinating! I never knew......

Regards
Mister Pig

 

[DaveVoorhis]

...
This is why a reasonable person will not claim that a place where one accomplished something is never relevant.
...

Obviously, setting up a home network (at home) is less of an accomplishment than running an enterprise network at Google. But that's because they're two different jobs, requiring different (and in the former case, far fewer) skills, not because they're two different places.

However, managing an enterprise network at Google is exactly the same as managing an enterprise network at (picking a random company) Balfour Beatty Rail Limited. At least, it's exactly the same to recruiters, HR departments, and interviewers. In both companies, it's the same equipment, the same responsibilities, the same job. People who might hire you will regard applicants from both companies equally; they're interested in what you've done, not where you did it.

As for universities, universities are not some form of competitive sport. Any appearance to the contrary is fictional, promulgated by popular (but erroneous) opinion and sound-bite driven media. In reality, a university does not stay a university without sustaining good academic work and meeting international standards for education. MIT certainly produces some outstanding work, but so does every other university of even minimal ranking, even if it produces a smaller (or less publicised) volume of it. Academic conferences do not choose membership based on the attendees' alma maters or where they're currently employed. They're public events, anyone can attend and conference presentations are via invitation (based on individual merit, such as demonstrated expertise) or individual contribution. Recognised academic journals do not publish based on the authors' employment history or place of education; approval for publication is based on anonymous peer review. Academics are hired based on their contributions, their research record, and their ability to generate income, not where they did these things.

So, again, it's about what you do, not where you do it.

Of course, there are rare individuals who treat where as more important than what, who occasionally wind up in positions where their views could have some effect. Then, even if their annoying pomposity doesn't "out" them, their peculiarly anti-meritocratic approach invariably does. Fortunately, such elitism is generally ignored except at garden parties and the like, where it apparently matters but is of so little importance that nobody cares.

 

[Brindabella]

Guys you're both clearly invested in the debate and don't get me wrong I too have been known to go down the rabbit hole on my high horse saber drawn, but I have read everything written and I have come the conclusion:

A. You guys are so off topic now - how much longer do you really want this to go on.
B. Neither of you are ever going to convince the other to see your point of view.
C. As a spectator it is now becoming a bit of a yawn fest.

Either agree to disagree or somehow bring it back on topic or just let it go.

Rob

 

[mjw21a]

The biggest improvement I've had for the least amount of money was replacing the coupling caps in my amp with Mundorf ZN. Its something I didn't really believe would improve things till I tried it. Now Im looking to upgrade the volume pot and input selector switch as along with the caps for the power tubes. After that all efforts will go into my secondary system

 

[DaveVoorhis]

...
A. You guys are so off topic now - how much longer do you really want this to go on.
...
Either agree to disagree or somehow bring it back on topic or just let it go.

I was once involved in a debate on a forum that went on for about six years, if you add up the various threads it split into, but that was about something technical that actually mattered to a small handful of people. This matters to no one. I stop now.

 

[TripathFan]

Bye Felicia

[A bunch of nonsense]

 

[Mitkraft]

I wish I could attach this thread to my RCM. It's so much quieter than my shop-vac and I bet it'd do an even better job!

 

[Njoy-Music]

Not always simple but I often find doing a good cleaning on controls of a noisy or scratchy piece of gear can have more than a simple upgrade to the overall sound. I have an Onkyo Integra 8087 that I did that to and it wasn't until I really cleaned the balance pot several times once I figured out it appeared to be centered there that it really opened up. Until then it sounded thin and weak in the bass. Now it's no problem.