2 ms·

That’s an interesting book to have on a computer science undergrad course. I guess many of the themes are very relevant, repairing, problem solving, the knowle

by mjgs 6y ago

That’s an interesting book to have on a computer science undergrad course. I guess many of the themes are very relevant, repairing, problem solving, the knowledge that different people approach technology in different ways, etc. Plus I can see it being a cool book to read at the same time as a other folks studying computers.

brailsafe 6y ago
I think he was referencing just happening to have read it while simultaneously being an undergrad, not that he was assigned it required reading. Could be wrong though.
- mjgs 6y ago
  You’re right I might totally have misread that. It got me thinking though, about the value of having some philosophy in comp sci courses. Back when I was doing my masters (2002-2003) it was a different era for the web, there wasn’t much thought to ethics or philosophy, but I think it could be very relevant these days. It strikes me that it could be a particularly good time to read the ZAMM book. I don’t know much about comp sci courses these days, maybe they do have such modules included.
  - brailsafe 6y ago
    Ya, that seems like a good idea. As of the last few years, philosophy courses at my school were not required, but you'd do them as part of your electives. I don't know how you'd actually formulate a comp sci specific ethics course, but it's an interesting thought experiment
    - mjgs 6y ago
      About the only non-computery course we had was a business / management / entrepreneur type course. I don’t remember if it was something we chose to do, but it wasn’t part of the core set of courses that made up the degree.
      - brailsafe 6y ago
        I feel like we may have had completely different undergrad structures from reading your other comments in this thread. I took my CS degree in the CS department of a liberal arts Uni, and so had a bunch of optional arts credits to fulfill along with some amount of science and then a bunch of specific CS courses. Having had a glipse of a CS degree that's part of another school's engineering department, I believe their structure is more rigid, and specifically detailed for 4 years.
BrendanEich 6y ago
My high school AP credits let me waive a bunch of Freshman math and science so I took philosophy, theology, etc. courses at SCU. Pirsig was assigned in one of the philosophy classes.
- mjgs 6y ago
  Philosophy and theology on a comp sci course is pretty wild, and I guess a good place to meet folks from other departments?
  - BrendanEich 6y ago
    As noted in the interview, I was a Physics major for the first three years. Also in the Honors Program, which helped get in some of the non-science classes.
    - mjgs 6y ago
      I mentioned you in my latest javascript, technology and web development newsletter. https://markjgsmith.substack.com/p/mark-smiths-newsletter-20-02-2021 https://markjgsmith.substack.com/p/mark-smiths-newsletter-20... I’d be honoured to have you as a reader, no pressure though, I bet you are super busy, and you probably get a zillion requests like this.
- brailsafe 6y ago
  I'm still gradually working on my undergrad. Most times when I'm out of work as a developer I return and complete some of my coursework. As time goes on, I'm finding a much stronger interest in the less-testable and more human oriented classes such as those you mention, but also History, language, and cultural geography. Meanwhile the CS courses are the ones that I'm struggling to be drawn towards; particularly as some of the former desirable compabies to work at face more and more human ethical dilemmas where the computer bit isn't the complicated bit. I suppose since it was my intense motivation to design and build websites that got me in various doors without a degree, as those things become more commodified, it would be expected to look elsewhere for that inspiration, but did you ever find that true for yourself?

by mjgs 6y ago

brailsafe 6y ago

I think he was referencing just happening to have read it while simultaneously being an undergrad, not that he was assigned it required reading. Could be wrong though.

mjgs 6y ago
You’re right I might totally have misread that. It got me thinking though, about the value of having some philosophy in comp sci courses. Back when I was doing my masters (2002-2003) it was a different era for the web, there wasn’t much thought to ethics or philosophy, but I think it could be very relevant these days. It strikes me that it could be a particularly good time to read the ZAMM book. I don’t know much about comp sci courses these days, maybe they do have such modules included.
- brailsafe 6y ago
  Ya, that seems like a good idea. As of the last few years, philosophy courses at my school were not required, but you'd do them as part of your electives. I don't know how you'd actually formulate a comp sci specific ethics course, but it's an interesting thought experiment
  - mjgs 6y ago
    About the only non-computery course we had was a business / management / entrepreneur type course. I don’t remember if it was something we chose to do, but it wasn’t part of the core set of courses that made up the degree.
    - brailsafe 6y ago
      I feel like we may have had completely different undergrad structures from reading your other comments in this thread. I took my CS degree in the CS department of a liberal arts Uni, and so had a bunch of optional arts credits to fulfill along with some amount of science and then a bunch of specific CS courses. Having had a glipse of a CS degree that's part of another school's engineering department, I believe their structure is more rigid, and specifically detailed for 4 years.

BrendanEich 6y ago

My high school AP credits let me waive a bunch of Freshman math and science so I took philosophy, theology, etc. courses at SCU. Pirsig was assigned in one of the philosophy classes.

mjgs 6y ago
Philosophy and theology on a comp sci course is pretty wild, and I guess a good place to meet folks from other departments?
- BrendanEich 6y ago
  As noted in the interview, I was a Physics major for the first three years. Also in the Honors Program, which helped get in some of the non-science classes.
  - mjgs 6y ago
    I mentioned you in my latest javascript, technology and web development newsletter. https://markjgsmith.substack.com/p/mark-smiths-newsletter-20-02-2021 https://markjgsmith.substack.com/p/mark-smiths-newsletter-20... I’d be honoured to have you as a reader, no pressure though, I bet you are super busy, and you probably get a zillion requests like this.
brailsafe 6y ago
I'm still gradually working on my undergrad. Most times when I'm out of work as a developer I return and complete some of my coursework. As time goes on, I'm finding a much stronger interest in the less-testable and more human oriented classes such as those you mention, but also History, language, and cultural geography. Meanwhile the CS courses are the ones that I'm struggling to be drawn towards; particularly as some of the former desirable compabies to work at face more and more human ethical dilemmas where the computer bit isn't the complicated bit. I suppose since it was my intense motivation to design and build websites that got me in various doors without a degree, as those things become more commodified, it would be expected to look elsewhere for that inspiration, but did you ever find that true for yourself?