[Novalug] What is your "Linux admin IQ?"

[Jay Hart]

Paul,

I'm just now getting around to this, but I'd be interested in how you answer
the following three questions?

a) How do you trouble-shoot? What are the steps in your trouble-shooting
methodology?

b) When trouble-shooting, which resources would you use and in what order? Why?

c) How do you measure an IT professional's intelligence?

Jay

> 	Infoworld has a "Linux admin IQ test:"
>
> 	http://www.infoworld.com/t/linux/linux-admin-iq-test-066
>
> I am especially interested in whether any of you who
> _HAVE_SECURITY_CLEARANCES_ can best my score. Here is _my_ score:
>
> http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/7720/linuxadminiqtestpauldba.png
>
> OK, smug, security-cleared MotherFu's, can you best my score?
>
> 	I suspect that a few of you can best my score, including, for example:
> Jim Cottrell, G. Pryzby, Brad Alexander, William Ball, Chuck Moss, David
> Niemi. But I doubt that most of you with _SECURITY_CLEARANCES_ can do
> so. Which would tend to buttress my belief that many of you have jobs,
> even as I languish in the unemployment line (nearly 16 months now),
> solely because you have clearances, not because you are knowledgeable
> with respect to Linux.
>
> 	Don't believe me? OK, then take the test.
>
> 	DISCLAIMER: I concede that I got lucky on a few of the questions. I did
> not know the answer (to some questions) and had to proceed by process of
> elimination. I eliminated two of the choices and then guessed as to the
> two choices that remained.
>
> 	BTW, some of the questions are "trick" questions. Read them
> _carefully_. _Every_ word.
>
> 	Truthfully, this test is not a good measure of Linux competence. Not at
> all. Some of the questions related to historical trivia and do not
> relate to competence as a Linux administrator. If I were designing such
> a test, I would proceed differently. I would want to know, for example:
>
> (a) What is the most important trend in IT today (TMITIITT)?
>
> (b) How do you stay abreast of TMITIITT?
>
> (c) How do you trouble-shoot? What are the steps in your
> trouble-shooting methodology?
>
> (d) When trouble-shooting, which resources would you use and in what
> order? Why?
>
> (e) How do you measure an IT professional's intelligence?
>
> IMO, one of the most important differences between a good administrator
> and an average one lies in their trouble-shooting ability. I have had a
> few bosses who had considerably more experience than I but who could
> _not_ trouble-shoot. They lacked the necessary, fundamental knowledge,
> e.g., the primary differences between TCP and UDP. Furthermore, they
> were not very smart. Nice guys. But not very smart.
>
> -- Paul Bain
>
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