How do you tell a wizard?

[John Chambers]

In article <219 at vsserv.scri.fsu.edu>, nall at loligo.cc.fsu.edu (John Nall) writes:

> I am charged with hiring a few "Unix wizards".  But I 
> don't know how in the $%%#^% to tell one, since there
> is no one locally who qualifies, and God knows that I
> don't!  I suppose I could ask all the questions that are
> in the "list of frequently asked Unix questions" and if
> they flunked THAT, then they don't qualify.

Some time ago, I ran across the advice that the best way to determine
whether someone was really an expert was to ask any reasonably complex
question, and if the answer starts with "That depends...", then you
know you have an expert.

Since then, I've discovered that this is only partially facetious.  While
not true itself, the inverse has a great deal of truth.  You see, there's
a general phomenon that, when people are trying to pretend to expertise,
they usually make the mistake of trying to give quick, definitive answers.
Most people think that this is a sign of thorough knowledge of a subject.
In fact, as various sages throughout history have observed, one of the
things known by a true expert is how much more there is to learn, and
how complicated the subject truly is.


Anyhow, I always try to start answers with "That depends...".   (;-)

-- 
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saying