7 ms·

MIT 6.172: Performance Engineering of Software Systems

177 points by roperzh 6y ago

utopcell 6y ago
Fascinating course!
ipnon 6y ago
Hard to believe there was a day that you had to pay cold hard cash to receive world class university instruction. Open courses I believe are responsible for the rate of innovation we see today in all areas of science and technology. You can really teach yourself anything these days if you can pay your Internet bill.
- turing_complete 6y ago
  The internet and the general availability of all knowledge and information are a paradigm shift. I think it is still underappreciated how fundamentally things have changed.
  - TeMPOraL 6y ago
    I feel we're only on the start of that paradigm shift - the possibilities are woefully underutilized at the moment. The impatient me is saddened by this, because it'll probably take an extra decade or two before the potential is meaningfully realized.
- znpy 6y ago
  > Hard to believe there was a day that you had to pay cold hard cash to receive world class university instruction. In a way, only we in IT/CS are "dumb" enough to give away education for nearly free. Go ahead and try and find equivalent learning materials for other subjects (for example: medicine, law, chemistry) and you'll realize there's not much content of comparable quality. I wonder what could we all do if we suddenly had free access to education in other topics, especially law.
  - Siira 6y ago
    It's also possible that this has actually helped us. Software builds on software, and this increases the productivity of software engineers, and makes whole new applications possible.
  - tpxl 6y ago
    Some of these require certifications to be applied (employed?) - Medicine, Law, ..., and some of these require hardware (and legal stuff for buying components?) - chemistry, ... Software is unique enough in that it doesn't require any certifications to be gainfully employed, generally you don't run afoul of laws and the hardware is very cheap compared to other stuff (a woodworking shop will quickly cost you 10k, while a decent computer is <1k).
    - ghaff 6y ago
      Computer science/software development is relatively open to people without degrees, especially if they have a public presence. And, as you say, for software in particular, there isn't much special equipment required (EE can get harder). The thing with disciplines like math and physics is that even if you master a BS curriculum in a few years, what now? It's probably hard enough to get a directly-related job with just a top-notch undergrad degree. And as you suggest, self-studying law might get you a job as a paralegal.
      - tpxl 6y ago
        > relatively open to people without degrees The best programmer on the last team I worked on didn't have a high-school diploma, the second best was a waiter. I'm not sure how much more open you can get.
        ghaff 6y ago
        The fact that talented people without degrees can get jobs to an extent that can be essentially impossible in other fields doesn't mean that they can trivially get hired for the many many positions that advertise various degree requirements.
- markus_zhang 6y ago
  I'd argue at least half of that tuition goes into interaction, tutorial, connection and other stuffs you don't get from remote education. Actually in the long run those things matter a lot more than a few pieces of technology you manage to understand.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - adamnemecek 6y ago
    Do these things matter that much?
    - _1100 6y ago
      IIRC, there was a study done in the last 10 years or so that found that there was a relationship between the type of degree, and how important the social or “prestige” component needed to be successful in a given field. The rough trend was that success with STEM degrees was less reliant on the prestige of the institution where it was acquired, whereas arts/humanities degrees required prestigious institutions (and the connections that they afforded) in order to attain prominent positions in some time period after graduating.
      - 908B64B197 6y ago
        > The rough trend was that success with STEM degrees was less reliant on the prestige of the institution where it was acquired STEM degrees are way more standardized too. Good CS degrees are pretty much all the same in terms of content, from Stanford to State U and abroad. Same textbooks used universities for most classes (maybe a localized translation by a local professor).
    - KMag 6y ago
      It depends on your personality. I went to MIT, and found interactions with other students much more useful than the coursework itself. If you've spent 18 years with tons of people telling you that you're the smartest person they've met, it's really good to meet (1) a few people who put you in your place and (2) lots of people who are genuine peers and push you and encourage you for the first time in your life, instead of just telling you that you're smart (or giving you a hard time for being smart). My freshman year at MIT, I roomed with a guy who was a highly ranked chess player, and one of the smartest people I've met. However, 18 years of having the rules never really apply to him and never being forced to actually focus really hurt his work ethic. He was plenty smart enough to graduate from MIT, but failed out due to a lack of focus. There were about 1,000 people per grade in my high school, and people occasionally asked me if I was as smart as the girl a year ahead of me who went to Harvard. There was really no question that by most measures of intelligence, I was the smartest person in my grade. I was getting strait As in honors-level math classes at the state university while in high school. I got 800 in both the SAT I Math and SAT II Math sections, and 790 in the Chemistry SAT II. My chemistry teacher just started marking my scantron sheet as the answer key, and the day after every exam, the whole class would go over my exam answers on the board to see if I had made any mistakes. I ended the year with 9 points above 100% in Chemistry because on the first exam, the second highest score in the class was 90/100, so the teacher just added 10 points to everyone's scores. I made one mistake (at least mistakes that got caught) later in the year in chemistry. In my university honors-level math classes, I would bring a newspaper and read, until one day where the TA asked a question that nobody else in the class could answer, so I folded up my newspaper, figured out what was going on and answered the question. The professor (standing off to the side) got red in the face and pulled me out into the hallway and said "I don't care who you are. I don't care what kind of grades you're getting. If you bring a newspaper to class one more time, I'll get you thrown out of the honors program." It was good for me to interact with others with similar experiences growing up and get a drop or two of humility. Your mileage may vary.
hvasilev 6y ago
Really nice!
augustt 6y ago
Fun moment: https://youtu.be/ZusiKXcz_ac?t=2721 https://youtu.be/ZusiKXcz_ac?t=2721
turing_complete 6y ago
Looks very interesting. More people should take it. Some industries seem to underestimate what performance computers are capable of.
legerdemain 6y ago
Rhombus!
itin 6y ago
This was such a fantastic class. The best part was Charles Lieserson's Leiserchess engine and the diet Dr. Pepper he drank in every single lecture.
- letientai299 6y ago
  Just only watch the intro lecture and I can confidently confirm that this course would be fantastic. However, the professor mentioned that this course is only about processor. Anyone know similar courses/books about filesystem, network, RAM, ....?
  - darken 6y ago
    I think MIT's 6.033 should cover a lot of what you're looking for; it goes deep on the "systems" that build up modern computing. On OCW: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-033-computer-system-engineering-spring-2018/ https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-compu...
  - itin 6y ago
    As pointed out in the comments, 6.033 is a good overarching course to learn about a lot of computer systems fundamentals. If you want to dig deeper into networks, OS, computer architecture, MIT has plenty of specific courses for those: http://web.mit.edu/6.829/www/currentsemester/ http://web.mit.edu/6.829/www/currentsemester/ https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-004-computation-structures-spring-2017/ https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-compu... https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-828-operating-system-engineering-fall-2012/ https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-compu...
  - 908B64B197 6y ago
    If you are completely new to this I'll suggest http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/ http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/

177 points by roperzh 6y ago

Fascinating course!

Hard to believe there was a day that you had to pay cold hard cash to receive world class university instruction. Open courses I believe are responsible for the rate of innovation we see today in all areas of science and technology. You can really teach yourself anything these days if you can pay your Internet bill.

turing_complete 6y ago
The internet and the general availability of all knowledge and information are a paradigm shift. I think it is still underappreciated how fundamentally things have changed.
- TeMPOraL 6y ago
  I feel we're only on the start of that paradigm shift - the possibilities are woefully underutilized at the moment. The impatient me is saddened by this, because it'll probably take an extra decade or two before the potential is meaningfully realized.
znpy 6y ago
> Hard to believe there was a day that you had to pay cold hard cash to receive world class university instruction. In a way, only we in IT/CS are "dumb" enough to give away education for nearly free. Go ahead and try and find equivalent learning materials for other subjects (for example: medicine, law, chemistry) and you'll realize there's not much content of comparable quality. I wonder what could we all do if we suddenly had free access to education in other topics, especially law.
- Siira 6y ago
  It's also possible that this has actually helped us. Software builds on software, and this increases the productivity of software engineers, and makes whole new applications possible.
- tpxl 6y ago
  Some of these require certifications to be applied (employed?) - Medicine, Law, ..., and some of these require hardware (and legal stuff for buying components?) - chemistry, ... Software is unique enough in that it doesn't require any certifications to be gainfully employed, generally you don't run afoul of laws and the hardware is very cheap compared to other stuff (a woodworking shop will quickly cost you 10k, while a decent computer is <1k).
  - ghaff 6y ago
    Computer science/software development is relatively open to people without degrees, especially if they have a public presence. And, as you say, for software in particular, there isn't much special equipment required (EE can get harder). The thing with disciplines like math and physics is that even if you master a BS curriculum in a few years, what now? It's probably hard enough to get a directly-related job with just a top-notch undergrad degree. And as you suggest, self-studying law might get you a job as a paralegal.
    - tpxl 6y ago
      > relatively open to people without degrees The best programmer on the last team I worked on didn't have a high-school diploma, the second best was a waiter. I'm not sure how much more open you can get.
      - ghaff 6y ago
        The fact that talented people without degrees can get jobs to an extent that can be essentially impossible in other fields doesn't mean that they can trivially get hired for the many many positions that advertise various degree requirements.
markus_zhang 6y ago
I'd argue at least half of that tuition goes into interaction, tutorial, connection and other stuffs you don't get from remote education. Actually in the long run those things matter a lot more than a few pieces of technology you manage to understand.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- adamnemecek 6y ago
  Do these things matter that much?
  - _1100 6y ago
    IIRC, there was a study done in the last 10 years or so that found that there was a relationship between the type of degree, and how important the social or “prestige” component needed to be successful in a given field. The rough trend was that success with STEM degrees was less reliant on the prestige of the institution where it was acquired, whereas arts/humanities degrees required prestigious institutions (and the connections that they afforded) in order to attain prominent positions in some time period after graduating.
    - 908B64B197 6y ago
      > The rough trend was that success with STEM degrees was less reliant on the prestige of the institution where it was acquired STEM degrees are way more standardized too. Good CS degrees are pretty much all the same in terms of content, from Stanford to State U and abroad. Same textbooks used universities for most classes (maybe a localized translation by a local professor).
  - KMag 6y ago
    It depends on your personality. I went to MIT, and found interactions with other students much more useful than the coursework itself. If you've spent 18 years with tons of people telling you that you're the smartest person they've met, it's really good to meet (1) a few people who put you in your place and (2) lots of people who are genuine peers and push you and encourage you for the first time in your life, instead of just telling you that you're smart (or giving you a hard time for being smart). My freshman year at MIT, I roomed with a guy who was a highly ranked chess player, and one of the smartest people I've met. However, 18 years of having the rules never really apply to him and never being forced to actually focus really hurt his work ethic. He was plenty smart enough to graduate from MIT, but failed out due to a lack of focus. There were about 1,000 people per grade in my high school, and people occasionally asked me if I was as smart as the girl a year ahead of me who went to Harvard. There was really no question that by most measures of intelligence, I was the smartest person in my grade. I was getting strait As in honors-level math classes at the state university while in high school. I got 800 in both the SAT I Math and SAT II Math sections, and 790 in the Chemistry SAT II. My chemistry teacher just started marking my scantron sheet as the answer key, and the day after every exam, the whole class would go over my exam answers on the board to see if I had made any mistakes. I ended the year with 9 points above 100% in Chemistry because on the first exam, the second highest score in the class was 90/100, so the teacher just added 10 points to everyone's scores. I made one mistake (at least mistakes that got caught) later in the year in chemistry. In my university honors-level math classes, I would bring a newspaper and read, until one day where the TA asked a question that nobody else in the class could answer, so I folded up my newspaper, figured out what was going on and answered the question. The professor (standing off to the side) got red in the face and pulled me out into the hallway and said "I don't care who you are. I don't care what kind of grades you're getting. If you bring a newspaper to class one more time, I'll get you thrown out of the honors program." It was good for me to interact with others with similar experiences growing up and get a drop or two of humility. Your mileage may vary.

hvasilev 6y ago

Really nice!

augustt 6y ago

Fun moment: https://youtu.be/ZusiKXcz_ac?t=2721 https://youtu.be/ZusiKXcz_ac?t=2721

turing_complete 6y ago

Looks very interesting. More people should take it. Some industries seem to underestimate what performance computers are capable of.

legerdemain 6y ago

Rhombus!

itin 6y ago

This was such a fantastic class. The best part was Charles Lieserson's Leiserchess engine and the diet Dr. Pepper he drank in every single lecture.

letientai299 6y ago
Just only watch the intro lecture and I can confidently confirm that this course would be fantastic. However, the professor mentioned that this course is only about processor. Anyone know similar courses/books about filesystem, network, RAM, ....?
- darken 6y ago
  I think MIT's 6.033 should cover a lot of what you're looking for; it goes deep on the "systems" that build up modern computing. On OCW: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-033-computer-system-engineering-spring-2018/ https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-compu...
- itin 6y ago
  As pointed out in the comments, 6.033 is a good overarching course to learn about a lot of computer systems fundamentals. If you want to dig deeper into networks, OS, computer architecture, MIT has plenty of specific courses for those: http://web.mit.edu/6.829/www/currentsemester/ http://web.mit.edu/6.829/www/currentsemester/ https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-004-computation-structures-spring-2017/ https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-compu... https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-828-operating-system-engineering-fall-2012/ https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-compu...
- 908B64B197 6y ago
  If you are completely new to this I'll suggest http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/ http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/