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Maybe for art school. Wasn't the case for engineering. Real people may be nice to have, but I learned basically everything from the books/internet and reviewing

by tim2 19y ago

Maybe for art school. Wasn't the case for engineering. Real people may be nice to have, but I learned basically everything from the books/internet and reviewing homework/test solutions for what I got wrong.

pg 19y ago
In art school I learned practically nothing from the other students. But I learned a lot about programming from conversations with Robert Morris.
- tim2 19y ago
  Now that is a valid reason: meeting other smart people who can inspire you and teach you things that the classes don't even begin to cover. If only there were a way for prospective students to know how good their school is for this ahead of time. I'd pay double for a school that puts me around people like that.
- BrandonM 19y ago
  ...and I've learned more about programming from this web site than I have from anyone I met here at school. Granted, I'm going to Ohio State and not MIT, but our CS program actually ranks among the top public universities. Eventually, I plan on moving out to Silicon Valley to really get immersed in the programming entrepreneur mindset. This is not something that has been motivated by school or the people I've met here, but by the things I've read online. Clearly, an online idea as mentioned would have some good impact.
  - mattmaroon 19y ago
    How do you like OSU's CS program?
    - BrandonM 19y ago
      OSU's CS program is good enough, I suppose. I think it was good that the intro courses did not focus as much on learning any certain language (e.g. Java) as it did on learning to properly specify and program component-based software. While I'm not completely sold on their style of specification, the approach is undoubtedly better than "here's how to build a linked-list in Java" approach. Now that I'm a grad student, I find that I'm a bit unsatisfied with Ohio State, however. There is a giant bureaucracy in the way of many things you want to do, something you might expect at a university of more than 50,000 students. One example is that the CIO of OSU recently implemented a minimum security policy for all computers on the network, one that allows only the use of certain operating systems, requires the use of antivirus/antimalware software (even on Linux systems), and requires that you allow them root access to ensure that these measures are in place. That's just one example. In general, though, I find myself largely unhappy with grad school, but I think this may be true of many schools. It feels like much of the popular research is in corporate-programming areas, and there aren't many people interested in things like dynamic or functional languages, which I happen to be interested in. Basically, I'm about ready to be done with grad school, but I don't think I'm representative of everyone. I'm just ready to have a higher reward/work ratio, and I'm ready to program productively, where the end result is something useful rather than a paper.
- deleted 19y ago
  [deleted]
- jey 19y ago
  I agree that the most valuable learning happens when talking with smart knowledgeable people, but how many RTMs are really out there at universities? Most of the people I've learned from were people I met online, either on IRC or by exchanging emails. Of the people I consider impressive hackers, only two of them were introduced to me in meatspace: one at UC Davis, and one at a YC party (pc).

by tim2 19y ago

pg 19y ago

In art school I learned practically nothing from the other students. But I learned a lot about programming from conversations with Robert Morris.

tim2 19y ago
Now that is a valid reason: meeting other smart people who can inspire you and teach you things that the classes don't even begin to cover. If only there were a way for prospective students to know how good their school is for this ahead of time. I'd pay double for a school that puts me around people like that.
BrandonM 19y ago
...and I've learned more about programming from this web site than I have from anyone I met here at school. Granted, I'm going to Ohio State and not MIT, but our CS program actually ranks among the top public universities. Eventually, I plan on moving out to Silicon Valley to really get immersed in the programming entrepreneur mindset. This is not something that has been motivated by school or the people I've met here, but by the things I've read online. Clearly, an online idea as mentioned would have some good impact.
- mattmaroon 19y ago
  How do you like OSU's CS program?
  - BrandonM 19y ago
    OSU's CS program is good enough, I suppose. I think it was good that the intro courses did not focus as much on learning any certain language (e.g. Java) as it did on learning to properly specify and program component-based software. While I'm not completely sold on their style of specification, the approach is undoubtedly better than "here's how to build a linked-list in Java" approach. Now that I'm a grad student, I find that I'm a bit unsatisfied with Ohio State, however. There is a giant bureaucracy in the way of many things you want to do, something you might expect at a university of more than 50,000 students. One example is that the CIO of OSU recently implemented a minimum security policy for all computers on the network, one that allows only the use of certain operating systems, requires the use of antivirus/antimalware software (even on Linux systems), and requires that you allow them root access to ensure that these measures are in place. That's just one example. In general, though, I find myself largely unhappy with grad school, but I think this may be true of many schools. It feels like much of the popular research is in corporate-programming areas, and there aren't many people interested in things like dynamic or functional languages, which I happen to be interested in. Basically, I'm about ready to be done with grad school, but I don't think I'm representative of everyone. I'm just ready to have a higher reward/work ratio, and I'm ready to program productively, where the end result is something useful rather than a paper.
deleted 19y ago
[deleted]
jey 19y ago
I agree that the most valuable learning happens when talking with smart knowledgeable people, but how many RTMs are really out there at universities? Most of the people I've learned from were people I met online, either on IRC or by exchanging emails. Of the people I consider impressive hackers, only two of them were introduced to me in meatspace: one at UC Davis, and one at a YC party (pc).