[SLL] faking Unix knowledge? pretend to know open source Unix?

[Jeremy C. Reed]

I am replying to a few different emails here ... sorry if out-of-context 
...

On Sat, 10 Jan 2009, Glenn Stone wrote:
> Actually, if a manager has good people he can trust to do the techie 
> bits, and is willing to devote himself to *just* fighting the political 
> fires and being an advocate for his team, it can work.  I had a manager 

I have had same experiences. Some good managers have good leadership and 
people skills and can guide and evaluate projects, while not knowing much 
of the technical details or even jargon of their 
subordinates^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hcoworkers.

On Sat, 10 Jan 2009, Bryan McLellan wrote:
> Anyhow, they're technical and would trust me, but none of them pretended 
> that they knew what I was talking about when I didn't.

I now realize I put the wrong focus on my questions. I didn't mean to 
imply or encourage dishonesty, but now I read it that way :)

Nevertheless, many don't/won't state upfront (or ever) that they don't 
know the subject area. (Of course, knowledgable co-workers, over time and 
sometimes quickly, figure that out on their own.)

On Sat, 10 Jan 2009, Bill Campbell wrote:
 
> Is your goal to figure out what to use to figure out who's faking
> it, or to get the fakers better prepared?

My main goal is to make a short list with brief descriptions of concepts 
that a manager (or someone interested) could read and digest so they would 
feel comfortable listening in -- and maybe even contributing -- to 
conversations related to open source Unix. This may including managing or 
hiring Unix admins (I am going to start a new thread based on this).

In addition to concepts, I also plan to include anecdotes and interesting 
trivia that someone may share in conversations with real Unix geeks.

On Sat, 10 Jan 2009, Bryan McLellan wrote:
 
> http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596009304/
   
942 pages. Too much information to digest. (FWIW, I have authored and 
co-authored lots of Unix courseware and some Unix books.)

Hopefully I can get this down to less than 50 pages (6x9"). There are many 
books and howto guides that introduce Unix and Linux, but I am looking to 
build a list of concepts that someone can use so they can feel comfortable 
communicating in a Unix conversation or placed in a Unix environment. 

I already have a long list and I will be glad to share here on this list, 
but I was looking for outside ideas and comments first ...

Now I am looking at this from a different angle ...

Here's a presentation idea for LFNW (anyone want to roll with this?) for 
an audience of spouses of the Linux geeks. (For example, my wife: she uses 
open source Unix every day for 8 years or so, but knows zero Unix.) The 
short presentation would not really be focused to encourage the audience 
to continue to learn, but just give them some jargon and examples and 
reasons of what makes Unix and why open source. Maybe the presentation 
title, could be: "Linux and Unix for the non-geek ... and always a 
non-geek". 

So if you had 30 minutes to give this presentation: What concepts, 
fundamentals, a little history, screenshots, software examples, tips, 
tricks, anecdotes, and trivia would you share?

(Keeping down to 30 minutes is tough ... the upcoming BIND and DNSSEC 
course I am teaching for 35 hours will be easier.)