Why we need to learn those stuffs...

Several days ago, I was talking to Mas Sam (don't concatenate the words and read it as an Indonesian word.. it's Samuel Louvan that we're talking about). In short, I was wondering, if we're going to be a Master in IT, why we should learn 'unnecessary' knowledge? There are Process Algebra and Requirement Analysis, Design, and Verification (RADV). Both courses deal with algebraic notation and fuzzy mathematical stuffs.. and there is not even single bit of programming in it! The same goes with many other courses... There are more theories rather than practical stuffs...

If this is the case, how can I cope with the newest technology in the market? If I'm going to be an employee, how can I know the best web framework to be used later in my company? How can I manage an IT department if I don't keep up-to-date to the latest technology?

In addition, how can these kind of knowledge be taught in this well-developed country if it's useless???? (At least, that's my first impression...)

Well, after thinking for a while... I just realized... That these knowledge are the basics of the things I considered to be cool... name it! Internet, web frameworks, real-time applications...

How can you know that a certain web framework is better than the other? By reading in weekly IT articles of how good is their performances? By taking a look at their vendors specification? By trying them yourself and concluding that their performance is good based on your prototype?

Well... you need to model them.. see how is the dependency between one module to another... See how they handle requests and concurrencies... see their coupling level...

How do you know that one protocol is better than the other? By certain 'hypothesis'???

I remember two years ago when I was starting to learn web services.. It's so cool, that I think I can do almost anything with it! However, when Pak Riza asked me in my final project presentation, whether web service is suitable to send real-time messages, I answered no because of the size of additional data which need to be transferred and the use of HTTP (which is not dedicated for real-time applications). But if he asked me to explain, how a dedicated protocol for real-time application should be designed and verified... I don't not know....

Because...
I never really analyze any Information Technology...
Just try them, if it's work well and fast enough in a small scale, it's good...
If it's written on a famous journal, then it must be true...
If a famous author, or professor, says that a certain technology is good, then it must be good...

See? The point is... I am always a consumer, who copies information from others... without being able to prove that the claims are indeed correct...

And this is exactly the reason why we need to learn those fuzzy mathematic stuffs....

We need to analyze the behavior of a certain system... and mathematic provides a way to model them unambiguously...

We need to prove that some technology is better than the other.... and mathematic provides an unambiguous proof...

We need to prove that our innovation is the best... and mathematic provides the way to show it to the world...

I believe that mathematic is a key to innovation in Information Technology...

No wonder... in this university, they teach so much mathematical things....

cause this is where innovation starts...



P.S. : Make innovation guys.. don't be trapped in only practical things!