EEVblog #580 - Q&A

[JoannaK]

Part 1 of the Q&A ... And only slightly over 3 hours.

[Len]

I don't want to have like a 2 or 3 hour video - crazy!

 

[free_electron]

I set the bar there on the amphour... Looks like dave raised it a bit

[EEVblog]

I set the bar there on the amphour... Looks like dave raised it a bit

Not even close to my record of 5 hours and 12 minutes on a live show:

[bluejonah]

This is well worth the watch for us who are on the lower end of the experience scale. Extremely informative. I really liked it! Learned a lot!

[Prime73]

Just finished watching. Enjoyed every single bit of it. thanks Dave!

[Dave]

You can make a water analogy for a transistor.
Here you go:

[robrenz]

Fluidic valves are  a hydraulic version of a transistor and actually have gain.

[EEVblog]

You can make a water analogy for a transistor.

Yep, I stand corrected. I've never heard of anyone teaching it like this though.
You can do it for a FET too, constant pressure instead of flow.

[Irukanji]

"How do you organise your bench?"

I looked at my bench and laughed. It's all sort of jammed in here, there isn't enough time in the day to organise it.

[peter.mitchell]

You can make a water analogy for a transistor.

Yep, I stand corrected. I've never heard of anyone teaching it like this though.
You can do it for a FET too, constant pressure instead of flow.

Like this dave?

[neotesla]

the first time I tried watching the whole thing. - it wasn't bad at all:)


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[Flappy]

I watched the whole three hours, all the time imagining Sagan sitting on the doorstep of preschool by himself watching the sun set. 

[timelessbeing]

What is the science youtube channel produced in Sydney that you mentioned, Dave?

[digital]

Dave I have been working in electronics for most of my life and seeing the decline in the servicing of electronic equipment in Australia and the closing of Tafe colleges it is good to see you put in the effort to help rekindle the industry in Australia and the rest of the world.

[Rasz]

What is the science youtube channel produced in Sydney that you mentioned, Dave?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veritasium

[hikariuk]

As someone with no degree I will admit to grinning with joy at the comments about experience being more valuable than simply having a degree.  It is incredibly frustrating that many companies simply use degrees as a method for crudely sifting CVs - anyone without a degree just gets dropped; they don't even bother looking at their experience.  Fortunately there are also companies who aren't stupid (my current employer included) and do look at what experience people actually have.

My current problem at work is that I work on software and I'd really like to switch to the hardware side of the business instead; I like working in the marine industry I just want to shift the focus of what I do in it.

[Bored@Work]

As someone with no degree I will admit to grinning with joy at the comments about experience being more valuable than simply having a degree.

And how does that help you? IMHO Dave only tells half of the story. A company giving the choice between hiring someone with experience and hiring someone with a degree and experience is going to hire the later one. Then add the companies who only hire people with a degree, experienced or not. And low and behold, despite all the doomsday sayers, such "stupid" companies survive. And make money. And therefore have no reason to change their hiring policy.

And by the way, if such a company happens to fail it is unlikely because of the hiring policy. But even if they fail because of their hiring policy one thing is for sure, they will vanish and there is no one around who could revise the hiring policy. So still no jobs for those without a degree.

It is incredibly frustrating that many companies simply use degrees as a method for crudely sifting CVs - anyone without a degree just gets dropped; they don't even bother looking at their experience.

Here we go again ... If you think there is nothing to a degree and that all your experience is anyhow trumping everything and is superior to a degree, then why don't you just go out and quickly get one? Should be a piece of cake, shouldn't it?

My current problem at work is that I work on software and I'd really like to switch to the hardware side of the business instead; I like working in the marine industry I just want to shift the focus of what I do in it.

So now back to my first question: How does grinning with joy at Dave's comment help you with that problem? The industry won't change because Dave said so and you are grinning.

[hikariuk]

Here we go again ... If you think there is nothing to a degree and that all your experience is anyhow trumping everything and is superior to a degree, then why don't you just go out and quickly get one? Should be a piece of cake, shouldn't it?

I'd love to know how you manage to deduce that I think getting a degree is easy; I don't.  I would love to have a degree, if only to demonstrate that I do have the capacity to acquire one.  The problem is I can't (or don't, depending on your view of me).  I have tried to do so before on several occasions.  My problem with them, and this is just my problem, is that I have quite severe anxiety attacks.  Anything similar to an exam, a driving test, an interview, or even just talking to people will cause me to begin shaking, sweat buckets of cold sweat, feel faint, and have various similar fun experiences.

And experience is not superior.  Experience backed by a track record of having worked in a field and showing career progress in that time is an indicator of ability.  You don't get to work for 20 years in a field, keeping parity with degree holders in terms of responsibility and pay, if you don't have the ability to do the job.  And frankly after 20 years your degree, if you had one, really has little to do with anything anymore - you're also running pretty much entirely on experience.  Knowing that there are people in the world who recognize this makes life feel just a little bit less shit.

I don't think a degree is useless.  I think seeing a degree as the sole indicator of ability is foolish and damaging.

[TiN]

Watched whole thing, best part about patience, same here

[M0BSW]

"cause me to begin shaking, sweat buckets of cold sweat, feel faint, and have various similar fun experiences",

I get that feeling  when I've spent a bit to much on E-Bay and the wife finds out, like she does has done

[Rufus]

And how does that help you? IMHO Dave only tells half of the story. A company giving the choice between hiring someone with experience and hiring someone with a degree and experience is going to hire the later one. Then add the companies who only hire people with a degree, experienced or not.

I found some stats for the UK.
Year   number of graduates
1980  68k
1990  77k
2000  243k
2010  331k

Over the same period the UK population increased by about 10% and 30 years of evolution hasn't changed the average intelligence of the population at all. So degrees have less value as a differentiator than ever while paradoxically are more of a requirement for getting a job than ever.

I'm not arguing with reality, just that reality is not necessarily a good thing. The real question is to prepare for a career/job is getting a degree the best use of the substantial amount of time and money required?

I think we would be better off going back to the smartest 10% of the population getting degrees which mean something rather than 50% of the population getting degrees which just mean they are on the right side of average.

[station240]

Episode #54 is the one where dave talks about talks about how he got started in electronics as a kid.
Yes I did have to use search.

[Towger]

Episode #54 is the one where dave talks about talks about how he got started in electronics as a kid.

I don't think we ever got the story for how Dave started collage at 15.

The good old wooden Tandy 150 in One... brings back memories... Those were the days, before Tandy Ireland went bust in the early 80s.

[hikariuk]

"cause me to begin shaking, sweat buckets of cold sweat, feel faint, and have various similar fun experiences",

I get that feeling  when I've spent a bit to much on E-Bay and the wife finds out, like she does has done

I'm single (that whole problem with talking to people thing is a bugger) so no problem on that front, for me   Which is just as well given I'm going to be dropping on a RIGOL DS1074Z with the serial trigger/decoder licences at some point soon(ish).