3 ms·

What blind spots? Algorithms 101 etc?

• tombert 7y ago
  Dumb example; I had been doing concurrent programming full-time for a few years with threads and whatnot, but mostly using abstractions in the language like STM and F#'s async monad and whatnot. Eventually someone used the term "mutex" and I didn't know what they meant...only to be embarrassed when they told me it's a lock, and I just didn't know the name of it. I felt like an idiot. I know enough algorithm stuff to pass a lot of whiteboard interviews (and I certainly know a lot more now than I did during that anecdote), but I'm not sure I could write a min-heap or merge sort without looking a bunch of stuff up first. I don't think I'm stupid, it's just that I don't typically write explicit merge sorts or min-heaps in day-to-day code, and it hasn't been sexy enough for me to write my own, but I do think having an understanding of the mechanics is useful and important.