No it's not, it's narcissism. Look at me, I'm a computer engineer, I solve math problems all day, so I must be much smarter than everyone else.
You think consultants don't have to think about the needs of their client?
You think salesmen don't have to think about how to make the deal go through?
You think lawyers don't have to think about how to make their case?
You think doctors don't have to think about their patients problems?
You think wall street traders don't have to think about how to beat the market?
You think managers don't have to think about the thoughts and emotions of their employees and customers? (ok, here lies a real problem)
You think real estate agents don't need to be creative to stay afloat?
I've never seen these stupid people everyone keeps talking about, but I have a huge suspicion it's a case of projection.
He's probably right in that the American culture / schooling seems to favor memorization, but the distinction between "problem solving" and doing things by recall is fuzzier than he implies. A lot of problem solving can be cast as examining details to find a match and looking up how to proceed. (That's not a terrible description of Prolog, come to think of it.) The reverse is true, as well.
Is a sysadmin troubleshooting an erratic network and starting with checking DNS doing what he calls problem solving ("my experience says checking this will narrow down several potential causes") or working off memorization ("many cross-cutting issues are caused by DNS, check there first")?
You think consultants don't have to think about the needs of their client? You think salesmen don't have to think about how to make the deal go through? You think lawyers don't have to think about how to make their case? You think doctors don't have to think about their patients problems? You think wall street traders don't have to think about how to beat the market? You think managers don't have to think about the thoughts and emotions of their employees and customers? (ok, here lies a real problem) You think real estate agents don't need to be creative to stay afloat?
I've never seen these stupid people everyone keeps talking about, but I have a huge suspicion it's a case of projection.