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so other activities (non-chronologically) were things like writing operating system components, replacing parts of the java collections framework with probabili

so other activities (non-chronologically) were things like writing operating system components, replacing parts of the java collections framework with probabilistic data structures or building our own red/black trees, designing chips, writing an embedded system or microkernel, creating oCaml/scheme/haskell parsers and REPL's, building C++ as stroustrup first did (by doing lots of plumbing with void pointers in c), designing new DSL's, spending hours on theory of computation proofs and decidability, implementing the viterbi algorithm for a speech recognition system and other wondrous dynamic programming problems, binary and stereo vision, distributed/parallel computing, and the list goes on... All that can be found in good books and without a blabbering blowhard in front of a blackboard.

kamechan 16y ago
yes, this is true. after all, we use books. that said, there is much value in having a structured set of challenging assignments with strict deadlines (presumably with some end goal) created by an engaging and knowledgable professor serving as one's guide. finding the books is relatively easy: dig through the course materials of a respected school. i used to have quite a few of them on my bookshelf. getting the most out of them, on the other hand, meaning both plumbing the depths of their granularity as well as casting that knowledge back into the framework of a coherent discipline, is something i'd argue is better done in school.
- mkramlich 16y ago
  > created by an engaging and knowledgable professor serving as one's guide. Very often, an impersonable and overworked grad student from a foreign country with poor English pronunciation, making it harder to understand what they're saying. But sure, in an ideal world, your CS teacher is the equivalent of a Feynman or Sagan, sure. That would be awesome, agreed. ;)
gaius 16y ago
All that can be found in good books and without a blabbering blowhard in front of a blackboard Yes, if you already know what books to read, which algorithms to study, even what the correct vocabulary is so you can look things up and speak to other programmers unambiguously. You can't escape Rumsfeld's Theory, especially if you've never heard of Rumsfeld's Theory.

kamechan 16y ago

yes, this is true. after all, we use books. that said, there is much value in having a structured set of challenging assignments with strict deadlines (presumably with some end goal) created by an engaging and knowledgable professor serving as one's guide. finding the books is relatively easy: dig through the course materials of a respected school. i used to have quite a few of them on my bookshelf. getting the most out of them, on the other hand, meaning both plumbing the depths of their granularity as well as casting that knowledge back into the framework of a coherent discipline, is something i'd argue is better done in school.

mkramlich 16y ago
> created by an engaging and knowledgable professor serving as one's guide. Very often, an impersonable and overworked grad student from a foreign country with poor English pronunciation, making it harder to understand what they're saying. But sure, in an ideal world, your CS teacher is the equivalent of a Feynman or Sagan, sure. That would be awesome, agreed. ;)

gaius 16y ago

All that can be found in good books and without a blabbering blowhard in front of a blackboard Yes, if you already know what books to read, which algorithms to study, even what the correct vocabulary is so you can look things up and speak to other programmers unambiguously. You can't escape Rumsfeld's Theory, especially if you've never heard of Rumsfeld's Theory.