[150022] in North American Network Operators' Group
RE: Common operational misconceptions
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (George Bonser)
Fri Feb 17 12:32:36 2012
From: George Bonser <gbonser@seven.com>
To: Mario Eirea <meirea@charterschoolit.com>, Leo Bicknell <bicknell@ufp.org>,
"nanog@nanog.org" <nanog@nanog.org>
Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2012 17:31:19 +0000
In-Reply-To: <C95B38A68C80744C8B371447DB6EE98C053D2E@CSIT-SRV-MBX-01.charterschoolit.local>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
>=20
> I wouldn't call it a "misconception", but I want to echo Paul's
> comment. I would venture over 90% of the engineers I work with have no
> idea how to troubleshoot properly. Thinking back to my own education,
> I don't recall anyone in highschool or college attempting to teach
> troubleshooting skills. Most classes teach you how to build things,
> not deal with them when they are broken.
Look for people who grew up on a farm. They are used to figuring out how t=
o fix things they haven't seen before and generally attempt to gain knowled=
ge of the fundamental principles of how things work so they can apply those=
principles in a similar situation. For example, such a person may know en=
ough about troubleshooting both gasoline and diesel engines and might have =
a better understanding of the underlying fundamentals of internal combustio=
n engines to do a passable job troubleshooting something they have never se=
en before (air, fuel, timing). There is a certain APPROACH to troubleshoot=
ing that transcends various fields. Some naturally have a talent for it, o=
thers aren't so good at it. Such people might be better in a multi-vendor =
network when there is a problem. You can generally spot those people not b=
y what they know, but by the quality of the questions they ask. They gener=
ally know what they want to accomplish or what they are looking for, but th=
ey might want to know how that is done with this particular vendor's comman=
d set or how this particular vendor processes traffic. =20
Some are natural designers, some are natural troubleshooters, some are natu=
ral documenters/support staff and they LIKE doing it. It takes all of thos=
e skills.
One important thing to keep in mind, too, is that by identifying the skills=
and natural talents of your line staff, you yourself are being a value mul=
tiplier to your organization. You are making best use of the resources tha=
t you have at your disposal and are improving the efficiency of the organiz=
ation as an organic entity. So this benefits everyone in the entire organi=
zation, including you.
