Who cares about theory anymore?

I've decided to change the way I learn new IT technologies: Goodbye theory, hello practical.

I'm just tired of reading books and articles that explain how things work. I've decided I'd rather practically do as theories will make sense as I do it. Some might say, theory is needed. But the argument is that IT technologies become obsolete quickly and so do theories. It's not the lightbulb that will always work the way (even lightbulbs have changed).

I specifically criticize some IT certification books for narrating stories about theory than geting to the point and tell us how things are done (they just want to sell those fat books, and as we know fat is not good for you

)

Are you a theory or a practical person? Which is better?

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Comments

blargoe

I'm like you, the theoretical stuff doesn't make as much sense until I touch it in person. I never grasped TCP/IP theory for example until I started taking hands on networking classes. I nearly failed the theory class in my Computer Science curriculum.

Turgon

Don't knock theory. Those rudiment's aint going away. Gotta love theory!

seuss_ssues

Theory is everything.

Its like music. If you understand the theory of how it all peices together you can learn new instruments relatively easy.

IT is the same way. I have a good understanding of firewall theory. I can go to pretty much any firewall and if i have a reference on how to configure it i can get it setup properly. New lets say you didnt understand that theory. You didnt understand why you should filter this or that. You may have a perfect knowledge of commands but still setup a firewall full of holes.

Programming especially falls into this category. Take any good programmer and they can transition to new languages very easily. They know the theory of loops and so forth, they just need a look at the syntex and they are ready to go.

When i was in school i hated theory. Luckily ive taken the time to fill in a lot of gaps in the my knowledge the last couple years and it has definately paid off.

If you dont truely understand how something is supposed to work and what its supposed to do it gets much more difficult setting up or troubleshooting more complex issues.

dtlokee

Anyone can type in commands, it's the reason behind why you type in those commands that is important. Don't knock theory!!

binarysoul

I'm not entirely against theory, but there is something called, "theory pollution" meaning our mind is pollutted with execssive abstract knowledge that may never server any purpose in real life. This pollution may impact our ability [and wast our time] to focus on practical side of things.

I would only learn theory if needed, not if desired. For example, to learn VoIP, I'm not going to read theory books on different protocols, signalling methods and technologies. First, I'm going to work with a VoIP router/gateway and then only try to learn about things that are releavent to that product. Also, time is always a constraint. Being practical is the shortuct to learning and being theoritical is quite the opposite. The key point is to be efficient and effective.

Most smart IT folks I've worked have been more practical than theoritical.

seuss_ssues

Learning commands is makes you good. Learning the commands and theory makes you great.

blargoe

seuss_ssues wrote:

Learning commands is makes you good. Learning the commands and theory makes you great.

So true.

ally_uk

I personally would say Theory is quite essential as a means to progress your skill set although I solely do not rely on theory alone,

I am constantly reading manuals , ebooks, and documentation sure I will not understand everything I come across at first but as long as I absorb the essential points as a foundation to then build upon
then you get the best of both worlds.

Theory isn't my strongest point though I have learnt that the way I function best is a combination of theory and getting hands on with products,

I'm not a programmer never will be the thought of programming bores me to death and I wasn't designed mentally to program when it comes to number crunching and typing in pages of code I become disheartened and frustrated to the extent where I resent it.

I'm more of a hands on fix things type of person I enjoy networking and I enjoy Linux and the Open Source way of thinking.

Essentially though Theory is a good skill to have hence why i'm a bit of a bookworm lol

druid318

Theory should be the foundation of learning.

My girlfriend can use the Ipconfig /release /renew to get a new IP address, because I told her to do that if her internet connection stops. She very little idea what she is doing though because she wouldn't understand the theory behind it if i explained it to her.

Granted the theory alone is just as useless. I had a college kid in my A+ class that new all about computer theory and computer history , but he could barely turn on a pc.