5 ms·

Why can't the books be able to teach about "how" as well? I'm from a mediocre country where I went to the best CS college and 99% of the things I learned there

Why can't the books be able to teach about "how" as well? I'm from a mediocre country where I went to the best CS college and 99% of the things I learned there was from powerpoint presentations, pdf scripts or books full of math exercises. I still got into FAMANG as my first full time job and so did many other people from there. I just never saw the value in our professors. They mostly repeated stuff from text books, had 10 year old lab assignments and similar exams for 20 years. And I don't think it's that bad. It teaches you enough of the basics for average programming job or as basis for you to expand into what's more interesting to you specifically. The only thing missing was cool projects like having your college develop GHC or stuff like that. Point being, I think college professors overestimate their impact a bit when regarding bachelors/masters topics. All that is too basic to really need some expert domain knowledge and is knowledge which hasn't really changed that much the last 20 years. SVM's were invented in the 90s. Linear algebra some time before that. The rest is industry or postdoc stuff. I get the "teaching" part but if you are "teaching" a room of 50 student's it isn't really that different from watching a youtube video for them.

username90 6y ago
You need positive teaching and negative teaching. Positive teaches how, negative teaches how not to. Without negative teaching people will accumulate a lot of bad or right out wrong beliefs and patterns as they study. A book cannot provide negative teaching, it can only teach you how to do things.
- freedomben 6y ago
  I would humbly submit that you aren't using very good books. I read all my text books during my CS degree, and there was plenty of negative teaching in there. A well written book or tutorial covers common pitfalls and equips you to recognize bad as well as good. I do think there is a ton of value in getting feedback from a professor or colleague, but you can get pretty far with a book.
  - colejohnson66 6y ago
    I’m reminded of Ben Eater’s tutorials on YouTube. Even though he knows what he’s writing won’t work, he writes the naive form and acts confused when it doesn’t work. Then he explains why it didn’t work. Compare that to basically every tutorial that just says “do this” without explaining why.
Beldin 6y ago
As an assistant prof in CS: - books can partially teach you the "how" and also partially the "why". - at university, you are being taught how to teach yourself, not necessarily how to perform practical things. Age of the exercise is therefore less relevant. - ideally, teaching a room full of 50 students is easy better than an online class with 50, which easily should beat a video. Not all classes are like this which is a shame.
- Orthw2020 6y ago
  > ...at university, you are being taught how to teach yourself, not necessarily how to perform practical things. vs getting a self-taught junior role early and not being $100k in debt?
  - Beldin 6y ago
    $100k in debt may be typical for the US. In several countries in the EU, you'd pay much, much less.
    - pb7 6y ago
      It is not typical for the US either. Average is something like $30K. It's a lot but it's not $100K.
      - colejohnson66 6y ago
        Where are people going to college (in the US) for $30k after 4 years (community colleges excluded)?
        pb7 6y ago
        https://www.affordablecolleges.com/rankings/public-schools-for-in-state-students/ https://www.affordablecolleges.com/rankings/public-schools-f...
        vonmoltke 6y ago

username90 6y ago

You need positive teaching and negative teaching. Positive teaches how, negative teaches how not to. Without negative teaching people will accumulate a lot of bad or right out wrong beliefs and patterns as they study. A book cannot provide negative teaching, it can only teach you how to do things.

freedomben 6y ago
I would humbly submit that you aren't using very good books. I read all my text books during my CS degree, and there was plenty of negative teaching in there. A well written book or tutorial covers common pitfalls and equips you to recognize bad as well as good. I do think there is a ton of value in getting feedback from a professor or colleague, but you can get pretty far with a book.
- colejohnson66 6y ago
  I’m reminded of Ben Eater’s tutorials on YouTube. Even though he knows what he’s writing won’t work, he writes the naive form and acts confused when it doesn’t work. Then he explains why it didn’t work. Compare that to basically every tutorial that just says “do this” without explaining why.

Beldin 6y ago

As an assistant prof in CS: - books can partially teach you the "how" and also partially the "why". - at university, you are being taught how to teach yourself, not necessarily how to perform practical things. Age of the exercise is therefore less relevant. - ideally, teaching a room full of 50 students is easy better than an online class with 50, which easily should beat a video. Not all classes are like this which is a shame.

Orthw2020 6y ago
> ...at university, you are being taught how to teach yourself, not necessarily how to perform practical things. vs getting a self-taught junior role early and not being $100k in debt?
- Beldin 6y ago
  $100k in debt may be typical for the US. In several countries in the EU, you'd pay much, much less.
  - pb7 6y ago
    It is not typical for the US either. Average is something like $30K. It's a lot but it's not $100K.
    - colejohnson66 6y ago
      Where are people going to college (in the US) for $30k after 4 years (community colleges excluded)?
      - pb7 6y ago
        https://www.affordablecolleges.com/rankings/public-schools-for-in-state-students/ https://www.affordablecolleges.com/rankings/public-schools-f...
      - vonmoltke 6y ago