Steve wrote:
The average mind doesn't consider a system in its entirety. Instead, when making changes, the relevant subsystem is considered. It's not difficult to break something elsewhere because of unforeseen interactions, similar to how a user breaks something because they use it in an unexpected way.
But what about the well-above-average mind (assuming for the sake of discussion that Avon is one such)? Certainly in my field, the ability to understand complex systems in their totality is rather useful.
There's a *huge* difference between someone who writes a database application - the definition of the data, how it's retrieved, what operations are available to the user - and the person who administrates the database system.
Somehow I don't see Avon as the Nth Century equivalent of a database programmer.
Tavia