Are IT workers becoming dependent on Google because technology is too convoluted or is it because we just don’t want to memorize shit?
I shouldn’t be surprised really, but I’m finding that I’m not the only one who has become almost dependent on Google Search in the work place. With reductions in staff and growing job responsibilities, many people are being tasked with functions that are not necessarily their area of expertise. Fortunately there is always a solution, and it’s found with Google.com.
No matter what the task is, you can always find a workable solution via Google, whether it’s how to make a custom theme for the Android phone, modifying your .htaccess file, write a MYSQL backup script, install and configure vncserver with yum, write a Cron job, or even more advanced tasks such as creating bash scripts and using regex. Hell, you can even setup an AWS cloud by following instructions found via Google (actually most people do this anyway because Amazon’s documentation sucks).
Any targeted search with Google on these subjects will lead you to ten blogs that describe in detail what it is you want to do, and at worse if what you want is truly unique, you’ll most likely find something that you can use as a base and modify.
Now this in itself could be considered a skill, the whole research and implementation thing you know, as someone needs to at least be familiar with the concepts talked about on these pages, as well as somewhat confident in themselves to set things up. However, this seems to be becoming a viable solution for the work place, but why?
It seems as if software has become so convoluted that it’s just not possible for even advanced IT workers to remember everything. I don’t care if you passed the MCSE and the RHCE exams, chances are you rely on Google every now and again as well when looking for a solution to your IT issues.
I don’t see this as a positive thing, though it’s not necessarily bad. My thoughts tend to think that maybe the IT world in general needs a reset. As a hole the industry needs to develop a new standard of how things are done. Something streamlined and easily adaptable and deployable with minimal tweaking required. Or maybe we just need to start actually memorizing shit.
Now that’s a pipe dream if I ever had one.