3 ms·
I went to one of these schools. I know the basics of java but pray to the spaghetti monster I never have to actually work with it. Most people I knew at school
by vowelless 10y ago
I went to one of these schools. I know the basics of java but pray to the spaghetti monster I never have to actually work with it.
Most people I knew at school were a lot smarter than me. And the thing I noticed about them was that they saw things more abstractly. It wasn't about semi colons, or the latest frameworks; but a desire to see things a little more generally so that their understanding could apply to large classes of languages.
Beyond languages, another thing this helped with was being able to use mathematics, computer science and logic to model parts of the world with some level of mathematical rigor. In other words, answering an under defined question systematically by first formulating it rigorously.
One more thing abstract thinking seems to help with is that it makes learning new concepts a little easier. And so, being at these schools probably also teaches people how to learn, which can be useful throughout life.
- jghn 10y ago"It wasn't about semi colons, or the latest frameworks; but a desire to see things a little more generally that could apply to large classes of languages." This is the number one most important lesson a software developer can learn. Strive to understand the underlying abstractions and patterns, make sure to have a broad experience base so you can see many different ways these abstractions and patterns are applied in different languages and frameworks. You will be far more useful as your career progresses, quicker to learn things, able to spot the good and bad in the latest buzzwords. I did not go to one of the 3 named schools but my observation over the last 20 or so years has been that while not a perfect correlation, better CS programs tend to do a better job instilling this sentiment into students.