I'd say it depends on whether you have other saleable skills to compensate. I don't know xml, but I am a qualified engineer with better than average language skills and good MSWord skills. To me, it's far better to have a specialist in xml working alongside someone like me.
It's a bit like most mums and dads not needing to know much about cars for their everyday use. For most, a course in mechanics might open doors on better more skillful driving. It may even save a life, but is it value for everyone to attempt to learn--even those with no aptitude? We're not likely to do our own maintenance 'cos once we have the intellectual knowledge, we'd need to get the specialist equipment. It's just not worth it.
We're moving towards a society where we're all professional autists: highly skilled in very narrow fields. Makes life a bit boring for most, but we're more efficient--and that's what counts. [No, it's not my philosophy.]
And then there's the "a little knowledge is dangerous" truism that applies to so many aspects of our lives.
If you learn it, learn it well--whatever "it" is. Cheers, Terry ************************************************** To view the austechwriter archives, go to www.freelists.org/archives/austechwriter To unsubscribe, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe" in the Subject field (without quotes). To manage your subscription (e.g., set and unset DIGEST and VACATION modes) go to www.freelists.org/list/austechwriter To contact the list administrator, send a message to austechwriter-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx **************************************************
