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It sounds like you work in an industry that doesn't strictly require frequently delving into foundational theory in CS. I do believe it would be a mistake to co

by vbtemp 6y ago

It sounds like you work in an industry that doesn't strictly require frequently delving into foundational theory in CS. I do believe it would be a mistake to conclude its useless, however, as there are many other industries that do need it, and people who are not in touch with the theory probably would not be competitive in those industries.

wolco2 6y ago
From your prespective how common are those types of roles in all industries as a whole? There are interesting compiler roles but the vast majority who learn how to build a compiler never use it day to day work. Would you recommend spending more time building compilers to better compete for those few roles or would you recommend a different approach?
- vbtemp 6y ago
  Challenges that benefit tremendously from just a bit of a dive into theory are all over the place. This has been true for me in my career as a software engineer whether I'm working at an energy company, federal research lab, tech startup, or networking services company. The key part is that it's not apparent (or apparently needed) unless you are familiar with the material.
- necheffa 6y ago
  I use most of my CS skills almost daily. I may not be writing compilers professionally, but on the surface, understanding parsing has gotten me out of more than a few tight corners. More abstractly, there are lessens to be learned in designing large applications; and appreciating the difference between a finite state machine and a deterministic turing machine, including the types of problems they can solve and how much of a pain in the ass one is to write compared to the other.
- VRay 6y ago
  I work in firmware, and 99.9% of the time the most exotic data structure we touch is a linked list CS still comes in handy though, especially computer engineering to understand some of the workings of the hardware Occasionally I'll use real CS knowledge when I'm building tools for work or working on games in my free time. Full disclosure, I didn't actually study CS in school though.. I studied EE and then went and learned CS via Wikipedia when I needed it to find a better-paying coding job.

by vbtemp 6y ago

wolco2 6y ago

From your prespective how common are those types of roles in all industries as a whole? There are interesting compiler roles but the vast majority who learn how to build a compiler never use it day to day work. Would you recommend spending more time building compilers to better compete for those few roles or would you recommend a different approach?

vbtemp 6y ago
Challenges that benefit tremendously from just a bit of a dive into theory are all over the place. This has been true for me in my career as a software engineer whether I'm working at an energy company, federal research lab, tech startup, or networking services company. The key part is that it's not apparent (or apparently needed) unless you are familiar with the material.
necheffa 6y ago
I use most of my CS skills almost daily. I may not be writing compilers professionally, but on the surface, understanding parsing has gotten me out of more than a few tight corners. More abstractly, there are lessens to be learned in designing large applications; and appreciating the difference between a finite state machine and a deterministic turing machine, including the types of problems they can solve and how much of a pain in the ass one is to write compared to the other.
VRay 6y ago
I work in firmware, and 99.9% of the time the most exotic data structure we touch is a linked list CS still comes in handy though, especially computer engineering to understand some of the workings of the hardware Occasionally I'll use real CS knowledge when I'm building tools for work or working on games in my free time. Full disclosure, I didn't actually study CS in school though.. I studied EE and then went and learned CS via Wikipedia when I needed it to find a better-paying coding job.