On Sun, 16 Mar 2008 00:39:24 -0700, Jon Skeet [C# MVP] <skeet@pobox.com>
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Well, you should know by now that Starberg has a sense of humor that
sometimes seems to lose something in the translation. :)

But, possessing myself a somewhat abstract sense of humor that other
people often don't "get" (and I usually find some humor in Michael's posts
when he's intentionally being funny :) ), I'll take a stab at explaining
it.

Michael was apparently talking to someone else who's an MVP, who commented
on the MVP program by pointing out that Microsoft has managed to staff
much of their technical support offerings with people who basically work
for no pay. Yes, there are some compensatory elements to the MVP program,
but given how much time MVP's actually spend on what they do that earns
them the title, if converted to an hourly rate it wouldn't even make
minimum wage (or whatever the equivalent might be in countries other than
the US :) ), never mind a salary suitable for highly proficient technical
staff.

Basically, Microsoft's getting a major bargain with the MVP program, and
Michael's friend is sarcastically pointing that out (by describing
Microsoft as a penniless company, something we all know it's not).

Or something like that. I think once you get this far into trying to
explain a joke, it's pretty much dead already. But hey, I tried. :)

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It depends whether or not they contain extended ASCII, or decimals
(i.e. fixed point numbers) ;)

The first post got my attention, but I didn't really get it either.

--
Jon Skeet - <skeet@pobox.com>
http://www.pobox.com/~skeet Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/jon.skeet

On Sun, 16 Mar 2008 05:24:35 -0700, Jon Skeet [C# MVP] <skeet@pobox.com>
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One of the benefits of not actually being paid staff. :)

I think Michael dedicated his post to you because, as evidenced in past
messages from him, he views you as sort of the epitomy of MVP-ness. And
really, can you blame him? After all, in addition to all the useful
replies you post here, you have a book! :)

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<snip>

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I think I got that much, but didn't see why it related to me in
particular. I'd say all the MVPs do sterling work - not necessarily on
Microsoft's behalf all the time, admittedly... I know I'm happy to
point out when a non-MS solution is the most appropriate one :)

--
Jon Skeet - <skeet@pobox.com>
http://www.pobox.com/~skeet Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/jon.skeet

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Jon *is* the epitomy of MVP-ness. He knows more about several MS
technologies than any MS employee (at least the ones allowed to talk to the
general public).

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Lovely as it would be to bathe in this glory as if it were fact, it's
simply not true :(

I think I can reasonably consider myself an expert to a fair degree on
C# as a language - but talk to Eric Lippert some time. (Or others, I'm
sure - Eric's just the MS employee I've had the most contact with about
C#.)

I'm competent with the standard libraries. I like to think I know a
fair amount about threading - but talk to Joe Duffy some time. (Or buy
his upcoming book. I haven't read it yet, but I seriously doubt it will
be anything other than a market-killer for other Windows concurrency
books.)

When it comes to web services, WinForms, ADO.NET, etc - I'm bluffing.
Well, not bluffing per se, but I'm far from an expert. However, I'm
quite good at working out where problems are, even if I wouldn't be
able to write the complete app - and that can give the appearance of
expertise without the reality. You could call it Just-In-Time
expertise, potentially ;)


This isn't some exercise in false modesty. I'm proud to be useful to
the community, even if it's mostly a skill in communicating the "little
bit more" that I know rather than being a true expert in all the fields
I answer questions about. Just don't mistake the ability to not look
stupid (most of the time) with true expertise.

I blogged similar thoughts recently, btw:
http://msmvps.com/blogs/jon.skeet/archive/2008/01/26/bridging-gaps-and-
finding-my-role.aspx


I appreciate the compliment mind you, even though I disagree with it :)

--
Jon Skeet - <skeet@pobox.com>
http://www.pobox.com/~skeet Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/jon.skeet