RE: Literate/Illiterate (WAS: Documenting installers?)

[Mailing List <mlist -at- ca -dot- safenet-inc -dot- com>]

Jay -dot- Malone -at- ser -dot- com  sez:
[...]
> >I'd expect them to be a highly 
> >technical group. It's 
> >just it would seem that computer expertise isn't necessary to 
> >their core 
> >job functions.
> 
> ME AGAIN: The military does plenty that has nothing to do 
> with any kind of
> technology, be it defense-related or not. These folks all had masters
> degrees in counseling, human resources, psychology, etc., and their
> expertise was in this area. 

People can be very educated and still be non-technical, and 
not merely in the computer sense.

Just for curiosity's sake, has anybody on this list ever 
written -- or helped to write, or edited -- a manual for 
a social-sciences procedure (other than something involving 
stats)??

You know... "Say these words, pause 3.2 seconds, say these 
other words, make this gesture, raise left eyebrow while 
making this gesture, then say this word. Release aromas 
3 and 9. Pause and await a result from the following table..."     :-)

My impression is that the social sciences are becoming 
real sciences in the area of gathering data and supporting/
disproving theories, but they still lack in the area of 
engineering and technology. Someone who is perceptive and 
empathic can be made more efficient, but somebody with 
poor social aptitude can't be taught to perform a psych 
procedure (correct someone's abberrance, or change their 
opinion, etc.) the way they could learn to install software 
or start a lawnmower or load the rocket-fuel without 
causing an explosion.

How many psych or counseling procedures will work in a 
reliable, predictable manner when performed in rote fashion 
by someone who has little aptitude or training (which is to 
say, someone who just read the manual...), compared to the same 
service delivered by somebody who lives and breathes to 
be a social worker or counselor? 

I know that's moving away from the original thread, but it 
would interest me to learn that some of you are documenting 
"hard" procedures and techniques in the social sciences... 
if those things exist.

Oh... but you probably can't talk about your work, or you'd 
have to kill us...   :-)

/kevin

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