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There are different ways to approach electronics. You can spend a few years getting formal background in math and electrical engineering, but I don't think that

There are different ways to approach electronics. You can spend a few years getting formal background in math and electrical engineering, but I don't think that will necessarily answer the hypothetical question of "why does this buzz". Anecdotally, I struggled to even get digital circuits working after several years of electrical engineering university education until someone who ran our labs told us about bypass capacitors. Which brings me to another way to learn, which is by hands-on tinkering and picking up theory where it is needed. I am pretty sure the guy that ran our labs didn't have a degree in electrical engineering, but he was amazing at building things and troubleshooting them. Building up intuitive knowledge and experience also takes years though.

BrandoElFollito 7y ago
I agree, but I am still missing (naively) the equivalent of the Python or node module fuck will generate UUIDs. Sure I child code it myself knowing the theory (algorithm) but I just want it to work because I am not that interested in the how. I think this is not really possible in electronics as there are maybe too many cases (though some are probably quite common)
FpUser 7y ago
"Anecdotally, I struggled to even get digital circuits working after several years of electrical engineering university education until someone who ran our labs told us about bypass capacitors" You're kidding, right? Electrical engineering from University and never heard of bypass capacitors?
- OnACoffeeBreak 7y ago
  Not kidding. I was a few years in having taken a few analog electrical engineering courses with labs, signals and systems, a course and a lab on power before we got to digital circuits. The first course in digital circuits didn't have a lab. It wasn't until we got to the microprocessors course where we had to work with a Motorola 68HC11 on a breadboard that the concept of bypass capacitors was explained to us in a lab. It was 20+ years ago. Maybe things are different now.
  - FpUser 7y ago
    Bypass capacitors are used in analog circuits as well. Not sure what is wrong about that uni. Anyways I am a former physicist and do not have any formal education in electronics. I learned electronics on my own and bypass capacitors were definitely not the last thing to come by.
    - OnACoffeeBreak 7y ago
      I think your experience reinforces my point that you can get to be proficient in electronics from either end: formal theoretical education leading to hands-on, or hands-on with theoretical learned as needed. Your case seems like the latter, and you learned about bypass capacitors early on. My case was the former, and I learned about them later.
    - BeetleB 7y ago
      > Not sure what is wrong about that uni. Same experience in my university. I think the curriculum has analogues with the CS/SW dichotomy. CS programs are not meant to teach you programming. Similarly, EE programs are not meant to teach you how to build stuff. In fact, the electronics for physicists course often had more practical material than you'd get from an EE course.
      - unishark 7y ago
        Engineering programs in the US are required by accreditation boards to have lots of lab courses. One of the primary reasons is the industry advisors on these boards want graduates to be able to build stuff. And from what I've seen, it's a lot easier to get an engineering degree by being able to build stuff but struggling with the math, versus learning a bunch of math but not being able to build anything. Assessment courses in your final year of school are required to test you at real-world-level tasks. Similarly CS is required to have labs which force students to be able to program. If someone gets a CS degree but can't write a program, they either cheated their entire way through every programming assignment, or got that degree at some international university that would never be accredited here.
- madengr 7y ago
  What's funnier is to see circuit simulations with bypass capacitors in parallel with ideal voltage sources.
lmilcin 7y ago
I found healthy proportion of designing your own projects, debugging/studying existing electronics and spending time on understanding theory behind what you are working on to be the best way for me. I could never go far learning just theory because I seem to forget soon after I think I have understood it. Studying/tinkering with existing electronics is fantastic -- there is so much knowledge in most products that I feel drunk with excitation to see how something can be implemented way better and more efficient than I thought. It is very interesting to see how different designers approach their problems and it builds my repository of solutions I can implement. This is no proxy for actually trying to solve the problems. I think only after you have really tried to solve a problem you can actually appreciate alternative designs. Now, rinse, lather, repeat.
Koshkin 7y ago
Absolutely. This reminds me of a similar difference between a ‘computer scientist’ and a ‘real programmer.’ You do not need any knowledge of the so-called computer science to be an excellent software developer, and I have seen more than a few self-professed computer scientists who couldn’t write a simple program.

BrandoElFollito 7y ago

I agree, but I am still missing (naively) the equivalent of the Python or node module fuck will generate UUIDs. Sure I child code it myself knowing the theory (algorithm) but I just want it to work because I am not that interested in the how. I think this is not really possible in electronics as there are maybe too many cases (though some are probably quite common)

FpUser 7y ago

"Anecdotally, I struggled to even get digital circuits working after several years of electrical engineering university education until someone who ran our labs told us about bypass capacitors" You're kidding, right? Electrical engineering from University and never heard of bypass capacitors?

OnACoffeeBreak 7y ago
Not kidding. I was a few years in having taken a few analog electrical engineering courses with labs, signals and systems, a course and a lab on power before we got to digital circuits. The first course in digital circuits didn't have a lab. It wasn't until we got to the microprocessors course where we had to work with a Motorola 68HC11 on a breadboard that the concept of bypass capacitors was explained to us in a lab. It was 20+ years ago. Maybe things are different now.
- FpUser 7y ago
  Bypass capacitors are used in analog circuits as well. Not sure what is wrong about that uni. Anyways I am a former physicist and do not have any formal education in electronics. I learned electronics on my own and bypass capacitors were definitely not the last thing to come by.
  - OnACoffeeBreak 7y ago
    I think your experience reinforces my point that you can get to be proficient in electronics from either end: formal theoretical education leading to hands-on, or hands-on with theoretical learned as needed. Your case seems like the latter, and you learned about bypass capacitors early on. My case was the former, and I learned about them later.
  - BeetleB 7y ago
    > Not sure what is wrong about that uni. Same experience in my university. I think the curriculum has analogues with the CS/SW dichotomy. CS programs are not meant to teach you programming. Similarly, EE programs are not meant to teach you how to build stuff. In fact, the electronics for physicists course often had more practical material than you'd get from an EE course.
    - unishark 7y ago
      Engineering programs in the US are required by accreditation boards to have lots of lab courses. One of the primary reasons is the industry advisors on these boards want graduates to be able to build stuff. And from what I've seen, it's a lot easier to get an engineering degree by being able to build stuff but struggling with the math, versus learning a bunch of math but not being able to build anything. Assessment courses in your final year of school are required to test you at real-world-level tasks. Similarly CS is required to have labs which force students to be able to program. If someone gets a CS degree but can't write a program, they either cheated their entire way through every programming assignment, or got that degree at some international university that would never be accredited here.
madengr 7y ago
What's funnier is to see circuit simulations with bypass capacitors in parallel with ideal voltage sources.

lmilcin 7y ago

I found healthy proportion of designing your own projects, debugging/studying existing electronics and spending time on understanding theory behind what you are working on to be the best way for me. I could never go far learning just theory because I seem to forget soon after I think I have understood it. Studying/tinkering with existing electronics is fantastic -- there is so much knowledge in most products that I feel drunk with excitation to see how something can be implemented way better and more efficient than I thought. It is very interesting to see how different designers approach their problems and it builds my repository of solutions I can implement. This is no proxy for actually trying to solve the problems. I think only after you have really tried to solve a problem you can actually appreciate alternative designs. Now, rinse, lather, repeat.

Koshkin 7y ago

Absolutely. This reminds me of a similar difference between a ‘computer scientist’ and a ‘real programmer.’ You do not need any knowledge of the so-called computer science to be an excellent software developer, and I have seen more than a few self-professed computer scientists who couldn’t write a simple program.