About 20 years ago, a man named Robert Fulghum wrote ``All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten." My wife being a kindergarten teacher, we of course had a good chuckle when we heard about it. The book went on to dominate the New York Times’ best-seller list for more than a year.

It would be hard to argue that the simple truths in the book wouldn’t carry you through a decent lifetime. Ideas such as "share everything; play fair; don’t hit people, clean up your own mess, don’t take things that aren’t yours," among others (including "flush," the one-word rule that needs no further explanation), are the basic principles we should all live by.

That sandbox in the back yard is where it all starts.

Learning. That’s what I’m talking about.

It starts when you’re a toddler, blossoms when you begin school, becomes a dread to the teenager and rounds out your persona in college.

It can be a cause and an effect when you become productive to society. It can be full of play value when it’s a hobby. It can become a discipline of science and help others’ lives. It’s one of life’s wonders, which we never really think about.

At least, I never thought about it much. Until now. I recently had an experience that made me reflect on it a little. More about that later.

One of my wife’s longtime friends, also a teacher, has a son who will soon be off to college. I asked her what his course of study was going to be, and was pleasantly surprised when she replied he was going to be a computer science major.

He had been trying to decide between engineering and computer science, and was advised that although both fields had very good prospects for finding employment after college, fewer students were entering the computer science field now than there used to be, and the demand for grads in that field would probably be higher. So that’s the direction he’s going in.

Good for him. And I’ll add "Good luck, P.J.!"

It’s true, by the way. I’ve been reading that in the trade magazines. Way back, when the Internet bubble was expanding, lots of people headed in that direction.

Then the bubble burst, and everyone thought the prospects for the field were bleak, so fewer people took it up in college.

The reality is that there is, and will continue to be, a demand for people "who know about computers."

Which brings me up to the current part of my story.

The field of computers, or technology in general, is huge. If there ever was a "big bang" of knowledge, this is it. There is waaaay too much to know about technology for any one person to know all of it. So people specialize in different areas.

When that happens, they need special training. I’m not talking about the general, well-rounded kind you get in college, but more-specific training.

It’s not the kind of thing that’s top of mind for most people, but it’s important, especially in a field where things change so quickly.

So, how can you get further training? Lots of ways, but first let me tell you about some that I recently went through.

It was the most intense learning experience I could ever imagine. It was sort of like if you’re thirsty and stick a garden hose in your mouth and somebody turns it on full blast.

You’ve heard of Microsoft, right? The big outfit that makes all the software ...

Well, the big bigwigs want to be sure that people know how to use their stuff, so they offer certification in many of their technologies. That way, if somebody is certified by Microsoft in a certain field, people can be sure that they’re really dealing with someone who knows what they’re doing. Other big technology companies do the same thing.

My employer decided to have me certified (double-entendre here, huh?) so I went through a two-week ``boot camp," a program to get a very high certification level in a very short time. Short of actually joining the Army, it is probably one of the most intense kinds of things you can do to your brain.

It was two weeks, three weekends included, 8 to whenever, every day. And, when you get home, you have to study more. Lectures, simulations, tests, lots of coffee, lots of cookies and pizza. Lots of learning.

Anyway, I survived, and passed all my tests, and now I feel like I should be certified (more double-entendre). Actually, I am.

That’s one way to get training. I was lucky enough to have that option. By the way, I would like to thank my employer, Pragmeta, and MultiSoft Technology Training Center, and especially my teacher John Cone, for their all they did for me. John came all the way from Texas to teach us.

Now, not everyone is as lucky as I am, but you can still get specialized training.

You can take courses at business schools. There is one here in Oneonta. You can take online courses where you pick your topic and learn at your own pace, and at your own place. I’ve also done that. That works, too.

You can get books on everything you can imagine, and learn from them.

You just have to want to do it. That’s the secret. You have to want to learn. For a long time I’ve said that if someone doesn’t want to learn, I can’t teach them. But if they do want to learn, they’ll learn it.

Even an old dog like me can still learn a few new tricks. So can you.

Bruce Endries is former systems manager at The Daily Star. He can be reached by e-mail at techgp@dailystarmail.com.