• Interesting. The link in the editorial takes me to an article about dynamic retail pricing.

    Aha! The URL in the editorial has "amp;" in it where it shouldn't. Take that out and you get the right article.

    On the subject of the editorial:

    However if the certification gives you structure and focus, if it allows you to improve the skills you have, and bolster the weak areas in your knowledge, it can be beneficial to your career. If you are taking that knowledge and using it in your daily work, or even in your spare time, then the certification is merely a stepping stone to something greater.

    How is that any different from any other method of learning? Search-and-replace "the certification" with "reading books":

    However if reading books gives you structure and focus, if it allows you to improve the skills you have, and bolster the weak areas in your knowledge, it can be beneficial to your career. If you are taking that knowledge and using it in your daily work, or even in your spare time, then reading books is merely a stepping stone to something greater.

    Replace with "fiddling with Facebook", and it would still be a perfectly valid argument.

    However if fiddling with Facebook gives you structure and focus, if it allows you to improve the skills you have, and bolster the weak areas in your knowledge, it can be beneficial to your career. If you are taking that knowledge and using it in your daily work, or even in your spare time, then fiddling with Facebook is merely a stepping stone to something greater.

    Logically consistent, and, if true for someone, then a valid argument. It's a bit of a stretch to assume it would be true, but if you assume that most of the person's Facebook time was spent on discussions about SQL, similar to time spent on these forums, then it's conceivable.

    Seems like it's a tautology, to me.

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