Electron Band Structure in Germanium, My Ass

Re:Electron Band Structure in Germanium, My Ass by zdragnar on Tuesday April 01, 2025 @03:21PM (#43550431)

Being in a professional field means being the expert in the room for your area of responsibility. That means being able to translate information into, and out of, the terms of art in your profession.

This is generally considered a "soft skill", but it really should be a recurring part of any technical curriculum.

There are generalizations of the concept- tailoring your message to your audience in public speaking, or charitable interpretation and seeing from another's perspective in debate, but the narrow case of "interpret these requirements and identify problems with them" is a good way to demonstrate an understanding of the domain.

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Re:Electron Band Structure in Germanium, My Ass by poincaredisk on Tuesday April 01, 2025 @05:00PM (#43551277)

I agree, that's a valuable skill. But do I, an expert in a narrow (very far removed from any soft skills) field, am the person who should teach it? When some students raise a complaint, how will I explain to the University management that this twist, even though completely unrelated to what I am supposed to teach, was actually a good idea?

I just say, even with good intentions, the incentives are not aligned with teachers going too far out of line.

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