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I really find this off-putting. The same things he labels as "bullshittery" are those things that meant when I got into CS, I didn't have to hold a soldering i

I really find this off-putting. The same things he labels as "bullshittery" are those things that meant when I got into CS, I didn't have to hold a soldering iron, enter the CHS triplet from a hard drive's label into the BIOS, or write code in an assembler. Other people's work, their "bullshittery" relieved me of a lot of tedious work that they DID do when it was their turn. What makes their stuff "bullshittery" is that they did not write their code or even design it to carry out my wishes. They did it to carry out their designs. And what they wrote did not DWTheyWanted perfectly, because they were human. But they gave at least some thought to what others would do with their work. And that calls for a bit more respect. I am right now learning Android app development. Are Intents and Activities bullshit?

dexiwz 11y ago
The 'bullshit' he is referring to is not the software itself, but its arcane interface. Think about the first time you tried to install a new version of python, only to have both version end up in your PATH somehow. Or run into permission issues and someone told you to run 'chmod 777.' As a novice, hours are easily lost trying to find the perfect commands to do something, and it often ends up being only one or two lines, something an expert would know immediately. His job as a mentor is to empower his students to do research, not be sysadmins. Selecting a student based on a pre existing ability to use a tool drastically limits the pool.
- ocschwar 11y ago
  If you want to do research into something interesting and worthwhile, you can't expect to just have a fully fleshed out programming environment with no rough edges to deal with. To use an analogy, you're walking behind the guys who cut the trail for you with machetes. You don't get a blacktop highway to where you're going.
  - dexiwz 11y ago
    Turns out a machete is much easier to use than the machine that is Unix. A machine that will mow down the entire forest in 30 seconds, or blow itself up, depending on what you tell it. Oh, and that machine has 1014 levers, knobs, dials, most of which are only labeled with single letters, or vague snippets.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]

dexiwz 11y ago

The 'bullshit' he is referring to is not the software itself, but its arcane interface. Think about the first time you tried to install a new version of python, only to have both version end up in your PATH somehow. Or run into permission issues and someone told you to run 'chmod 777.' As a novice, hours are easily lost trying to find the perfect commands to do something, and it often ends up being only one or two lines, something an expert would know immediately. His job as a mentor is to empower his students to do research, not be sysadmins. Selecting a student based on a pre existing ability to use a tool drastically limits the pool.

ocschwar 11y ago
If you want to do research into something interesting and worthwhile, you can't expect to just have a fully fleshed out programming environment with no rough edges to deal with. To use an analogy, you're walking behind the guys who cut the trail for you with machetes. You don't get a blacktop highway to where you're going.
- dexiwz 11y ago
  Turns out a machete is much easier to use than the machine that is Unix. A machine that will mow down the entire forest in 30 seconds, or blow itself up, depending on what you tell it. Oh, and that machine has 1014 levers, knobs, dials, most of which are only labeled with single letters, or vague snippets.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]