Date:         Fri, 26 Jul 2002 12:33:09 -0400
Reply-To:     "Goldman, Brad (AT-Atlanta)" <Brad.Goldman@AUTOTRADER.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         "Goldman, Brad (AT-Atlanta)" <Brad.Goldman@AUTOTRADER.COM>
Subject:      Re: Best Ways To Learn SAS?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

My thoughts are along the same lines.  During a previous job\, I had a
project manager who had a different outlook on problems than me.  I wanted
to get the problem done, in the time allotted.  He wanted to get the problem
done the right way, even if it took more time.  And if doing it the right
way meant taking time learning new techniques, so be it.  Fortunately, no
one understood what we did, so it was easy to stall management deadlines
while doing R&D!  The upshot was that I learned how to research programming
problems, how to allow my curiousity to guide my research.

Many programmers are unconciously guided by the saying, "When all you have
is a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail."  If all you know is array
processing, every problem looks like an array problem.  If all you know is
datastep processing, you will never take advantage of premade procedures.
If all you know is SAS, you will never learn the great unix and perl
approaches to problems, etc... The programs will work, but you will have
never grown by doing them.  It is important to view every new SAS problem as
an opportunity to add more tools to your toolbox.

-Brad