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All the points mentioned in the article are not specific to CS, and they are mostly about living normal adult life (socializing, deadlines, etc.) I don't think

by sklivvz1971 7y ago

All the points mentioned in the article are not specific to CS, and they are mostly about living normal adult life (socializing, deadlines, etc.) I don't think that going to college is necessary or detrimental. It's probably good that people from 18 to 21 stay somewhere safe and learn something out of their parent's home. That said, there is very little that a CS course can teach you that is both practically useful on the job and you can't easily learn from yourself. That's because a large part of coding is not about knowing the most advanced and obscure data structures or algorithms. Which brings me to the point. Neither of those options teaches you how do develop a product feature. That's what people still learn on the job today, and it's why knowing how to code is merely necessary but certainly not sufficient to be a good developer.

LoSboccacc 7y ago
logic, computational complexity, algorithms, best practices and patterns one can learn on its own but it's _rare_ to find a self taught coder that has had exposure to these topics. there are great developer that are self taught and self sufficient, sure, but the majority end up coding small potatoes or cogs within a soul crushing enterprise with zero agency and while most cs grad have little coding skill they have the ability to learn far beyond because while they don't know the hows, they know whys so even if their core skill stars similar, their long term trajectories are wildly different, which is something to consider too
- sklivvz1971 7y ago
  I don't have any statistics, but at a personal level, I find that logic, complexity, algorithms, etc. are trivial subjects that I learned in large part by myself during high school. I'm pretty sure this is year one stuff at a CS course. All the rest that you are saying applies equally to any college student or merely to any intelligent, learned person who constantly improves their intellectual skills.

LoSboccacc 7y ago

logic, computational complexity, algorithms, best practices and patterns one can learn on its own but it's _rare_ to find a self taught coder that has had exposure to these topics. there are great developer that are self taught and self sufficient, sure, but the majority end up coding small potatoes or cogs within a soul crushing enterprise with zero agency and while most cs grad have little coding skill they have the ability to learn far beyond because while they don't know the hows, they know whys so even if their core skill stars similar, their long term trajectories are wildly different, which is something to consider too

sklivvz1971 7y ago
I don't have any statistics, but at a personal level, I find that logic, complexity, algorithms, etc. are trivial subjects that I learned in large part by myself during high school. I'm pretty sure this is year one stuff at a CS course. All the rest that you are saying applies equally to any college student or merely to any intelligent, learned person who constantly improves their intellectual skills.