subota, 15.03.2008.

FAJT, FAJT, FAJT – verzija 2.0

Kašeta brukava ... to mi je danas cili dan na pameti ... Klasična Zvonina „uvaljotka“. Komentatori napadaju sa svih strana, javio se i Banderas osobno i što ti je činiti nego početi pisati novi post.

I došao sam dopola.

Sve sam objasio Banderasu (kako opet govori neistine jer na ispitu iz OOPa nikad nije bilo binarnog ocjenjivanja i uvijek je bilo 5 zadataka, a ne 3 – a o njegovom „iskustvu“, „projektima“ i „diplomskom“ da i ne počinjem) pa sam se onda uhvatio malo i ukoštac s onima kojima se čini da je to nekako „ispod nivoa“ da se profesor ide svađati sa studentom i raspravljati po blogovima i forumima ... i tu sam stigao dopola kad je na blog sletio komentar kolegice Nelle koji me je posve zaokupio i u Recycle bin lansirao prvu verziju posta.

U kojem ona kaže ovako:

Hi Zvone,

I had the "privilege" to go trough the undergrad system called FER. Comparing it to the N. American advanced education, that was a very unpleasant experience !
I remember studying for the exams that haven't been changed for over 20 years, not to mention usefulness of that knowledge I learned.
I remember bitterness of some professors and assistants, channeling their frustrations trough students. Some, on the other hand, used a division of FER as their private company - FER d.o.o. with free labour (paid by the government, of course). Others worked for the industry at the same time, while keeping the chair (and salary with benefits) worm at FER.
In one word, very unprofessional behaviour from people which main purpose should have been to educate new generations, and set an example. No wonder, that FER and Zagreb University is not even close to the top 100 universities in the Europe or that no one outside of Croatia has actually heard of it!

Zvone, to me it sounds like you inherited some of the features from the both "classes" of people and completely lost the focus in that process. Reading trough your blog, I can see how person like you would be angry and would take this student/exam situation so personally. You might have brain, but no tactics or strategy skills whatsoever. (Sorry, but that's my honest opinion)

Just look at your writing style:

* You SCREAM and use multiple exclamation and question marks – who likes to talk to or work with an angry and frustrated man?
* You swear or use slang to prove your point – there are other ways to prove your point, you should know better!
* You write 2 -3 pages long emails to the politicians – do you really think they are interested (and have time) to read all of that ?

Where did your brute force style take you so far ?

Where did your brute force style take you so far ?

After fifteen years of your advanced education you give an impression of an angry, frustrated and lost man.
Have you used your energy and knowledge to try to make FER a better educational institution instead of waisting your resources on meaningless arguments with former students and writing pointless political blogs ?
If you ask me, you would have given a greater contribution if you say, joined The Thunder from Down under (you would certainly qualify with a stage name Dr. C++Builder)

What I'm trying to tell you is that instead of entertaining web public with your frustrations - change your attitude and start actually doing something positive!

But hey, don't listen to me, what do I know...

I know one thing - continue on with your direction - one day we might read in newspaper something like:

“Doktor znanosti Z.V.(34) prebio bejzbol palicom doktora”

Cheers,

Nella



Dear Nella,

Thank you very much for your comment. I don't know for what reason you have written it in English (since you „passed trough the undergrad system called FER“ you should probably know Croatian) but I'll be kind enough to respond likewise :-).

In your comment you make some interesting points and there are things we can definitively agree on. Your characterisation of „classes“ of people at FER is absolutely brilliant and with your observations you have cut to the heart of the problem with Croatian higher education ! It is definitively a mess and it really makes me wonder if FER, as one of the best institutions of its kind in Croatia is like that, what the others look like !?

Also when you observe that I'm angry and frustrated, you are also right, 'cos - YOU BET I'M ANGRY AND FRUSTRATED !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Who wouldn't be (isn't !) angry and frustrated in this pitiful country where every night on TV you have to look at our politicians and endure examples of their stupidity, irresposibility and shorthsightedness !

I get angry on a DAILY basis !

You criticize my writing style, in all its „exclamation and question marks“ glory, and talk bad about my use of swearing and slang. Well, as I said multiple times before, this is A BLOG – it ain't a scientific paper, baby ;-) ! And one of these days I'm gonna write a post dedicated to explanation of my „writing rules“ for this blog, so in the future I hope to have a direct link to end discussions like this.

And there our agreement, unfortunately, stops ...

Beacuse, when you say „to me it sounds like you inherited some of the features from the both "classes" of people and completely lost the focus in that process ... You might have brain, but no tactics or strategy skills whatsoever.“ I must strongly disagree with you ;-)

I don't „use“ FER as a d.o.o. and nobody is working „for me“ there, altough I've seen plenty examples of this kind of behaviour (with related „staff turnover“ problems ;-). I do „work in industry“ and consider it as a personal achievement to have knowledge and skills that I can actually sell on the market. And I think it absolutely positively reflects on my ability to teach students computer science!

But when you say I've „lost the focus in that proces“ – that is most certainly not true !

And if we can combine „tactics or strategy skills“ under umbrella of „social intelligence“ ... I'll say I've come a long way since that distant day when my mentor told me: „Listen Zvone, you are this clever (spreading his arms as far as he could reach), but your social intelligence is like this (and then he closed his thumb and forefinger to the distance of few centimeters)“.

You see, nowadays I know when it is required of me to „bend over“ ;-). As I've said, I've improved in that department. Problem is that doing the bending was always a difficult thing for me to do (spine problems :-).

Getting back to „focus problems“ and you questioning whether I should have invested „energy and knowledge to try to make FER a better educational institution instead of waisting your resources on meaningless arguments with former students and writing pointless political blogs“ well ... I did try to do my „share of lifting“ at FER, but eventually, „formalities“ stopped me. I was eager, but I wasn't allowed. „It's not such a good idea at this time“. So time passed and I translated my eagerness elsewhere.

And I can say that I'm DAMN PROUD of my blog ! I didn't take lightly describing it as „pointless“ ...

When you complain about „wasting resources on pointless blogs“ and make jokes about my e-mails to politicians you're completely missing the point ! I'm very proud of my e-mail exchange with prof. Ivo Banac that I reported about on this blog, and similarly with the one I had with prof. Vesna Pusić. I received interesting replies from them and consider myself enriched with that experience and the exchange of ideas itself.

And, altough it is true that sometimes my blog becomes „entertainment for web public with my frustrations“, as happened with my previous post, I strongly believe that by writing this blog I'm doing some good.

But, to be truthful, in the end I am first and foremost doing it for myself. For my own peace of mind. I couldn't cut it as a politician, but I can write. Sometimes my ideas are good, sometimes they are bad, sometimes they are sketchy, sometimes they are thought through and detailed. But they are there and open for discussion.

It ain't gonna change the world, but I'm proud of it. Even more so because of my un-anonimity (I „adore“ anonymous types that are sooo „insightful“ in their ideas, but in the end don't have the spine to back it with their real name, yourself included ;-)

Is this blog the only idea of „actually doing something positive“ that I could think of ?

Of course not, but all in its due time ...

And, to end on a happy note, everyone in family is healthy, mother is now OK after radiation therapy, at least doctors say so ;-), so my baseball bat is safely retired in its closet. Hopefully, we'll never see that newspaper headline ...
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