5 ms·

Aw, man. This essay gives me some perspective. I ended up hating physics by the time I got my bachelor’s in it. I remember junior year they said, we know you’re

Aw, man. This essay gives me some perspective. I ended up hating physics by the time I got my bachelor’s in it. I remember junior year they said, we know you’re confused, you haven’t actually learned REAL physics yet, that’s what grad school is for. And most of you won’t be accepted, and of those who are, most won’t become professors even if you want to. I figured a physics degree would allow me to get a good job, but then they said, sure, if you want to do finance, defense, or education. What?! The first two were pretty nauseating so I decided to do a year-long internship at various local public schools, and realized that I hated that too. (More the bureaucracy than the actual teaching aspect.) My school basically expected you’d double major in math or CS, so they often didn’t teach a lot of the fundamental techniques you needed, assuming you knew it already. I also learned that while my high school had done a great job teaching me English and history, the math department was not quite up to snuff comparatively, and I felt behind my classmates about “fundamentals” like linear algebra, which they had somehow been taught in high school. Sure, I knew Shakespeare a lot better than them, and even minored in literature in college (maybe biting off more than I could chew) but that clearly didn’t impress them. Why waste your time with old books when you could be making money! It definitely brought me down a notch and made me feel dumb, but I also realized college wasn’t a place for someone to learn lots of different things, but to focus on one area instead. I ended up becoming a bartender and I’m very happy with that decision. At least, once things are back to normal, hopefully within the next few months. Hopefully I didn’t just jinx it

hellbannedguy 6y ago
I look back on college, and so many classes seemed like a waste of time. I understand a well rounded education, but so many classes seemed like fluff. I once took a Abnormal Psychology class. It sounded interesting being premed. For half a year we sat in a circle, and talked about feelings. I was so shy that was the last place I would open up. I used to think, If I was honest, I would admit I was still a virgin, and had a deathly fear of public speaking. I loved the teacher though. She really meant well. If I had a kid, I would supplement his education. I would make sure he knew mathematics well. I also think physics should be taught much earlier, along with the finance, and the markets. As a kid, I was interested in woodworking, cars, engines, even electricity, but the teachers had us coloring world maps?
- 908B64B197 6y ago
  > As a kid, I was interested in woodworking, cars, engines, even electricity, but the teachers had us coloring world maps? Wait until you read this [0] [1] [0] https://www.city-journal.org/the-miseducation-of-americas-elites https://www.city-journal.org/the-miseducation-of-americas-el... [1] https://www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/new-course-outlines-prompt-conversations-about-identity-race-in-seattle-classrooms-even-in-math/ https://www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/new-course-outlin...
  - a_t48 6y ago
    Care to give a little bit more context?
  - xxpor 6y ago
    As Matt Yglesias put it, the first article makes 0 sense. If they don't like what the school is teaching them, pull their kids out! Isn't that the whole point of private school? It's a choice to go there.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - spazrunaway 6y ago
      As if they're not teaching the same things in public schools. And it's sort of frustrating that the woke teach actively fighting supposed oppression in every institution, every workplace, every household, and really every imaginable part of life in order to be an 'ally', lest your 'white silence' and complicity encourage 'violence'...and the rest of us are told that if we don't like something, we should just shut up and avoid it.
      - xirbeosbwo1234 6y ago
        They aren't teaching the same things in public schools. (I doubt they're teaching them in that prep school, either, but I haven't looked into it.)
dataflow 6y ago
> My school basically expected you’d double major in math or CS Coding knowledge is becoming a matter of literacy for more and more professions, so it might be worth trying to pick up a bit of it before it's too late - lockdown might be an especially good time.
- cammikebrown 6y ago
  I'm nearly 32, I took introductory coding classes and got straight As but I can't seem to get past more complicated projects. I'm not sure if my brain is wired for it, I have a very hard time finding bugs that are sitting right in front of me, and thinking about loops for too long makes my head hurt. I've certainly tried, I'm considering getting a Mac for dev because Windows is so painful to try and learn any coding. Seriously, I'll copy and paste stuff and it just won't run or it'll give an error on Windows, every single time.
  - ksd482 6y ago
    It takes time. I have been developing software for more than a decade now and I am still learning a lot of things that seem to be basic. Your knowledge and experience will increase linearly. Mac would definitely be my choice.
  - moron4hire 6y ago
    It's highly unlikely any of your problems have anything to do with working from Windows. You're likely to experience the same problems on MacOS.
    - a-nikolaev 6y ago
      Yep, you can learn programming in any OS. (OS is mostly orthogonal to programming itself really.) Especially if you are using something popular like Python that is available for almost any platform.
  - mettamage 6y ago
    > Seriously, I'll copy and paste stuff and it just won't run or it'll give an error on Windows, every single time. I've had this as well, in part it's because I don't know PowerShell / CMD that well. I'd go for Mac, I did it and never looked back. Buy the new M1 Mac Mini even, if you have the spare money. > I'm not sure if my brain is wired for it, I've thought about this question as my brain partially isn't and learned a thing or two on how to overcome it. My issues: 1. Being detail oriented isn't my strong suit. 2. For a long time I wasn't able to grok it. 3. I have hard time visualizing code. My solutions: 1. Use all kinds of tools that will kill the detail. Simple things like syntax highlighers and linters are a given. The most bang for buck was when I learned how to use a debugger, that was almost 10 years ago. 2. Follow a computer systems course like NAND2Tetris and after that hack computers at hackthebox.eu (especially the x86-64 assembly challenges). By understanding the internals of how computers work at a systems level, you essentially are capable of grokking a lot more. Take a compilers course while you're at it, I failed mine, but learned a lot from it anyway that helped to grok more stuff. 3. Debuggers help here as well, practicing pure math helps (I'm not good at that either) and simply doing data structure and algorithm exercises help. --- I've learned over time that making a statement like "my brain isn't wired for it" isn't helping. In part this is because it isn't true, what I was lacking was a certain perspective that comes quicker to some people. For me, it took some time, but now I have it :)
hinkley 6y ago
My friend figured this out and pivoted to a CS degree. Then got both because it was only another semester of classes.
- cammikebrown 6y ago
  My physics program had zero programming requirements.
analog31 6y ago
>>> My school basically expected you’d double major in math or CS, so they often didn’t teach a lot of the fundamental techniques you needed, assuming you knew it already. Indeed, it was some decades ago, but at my college, there was substantial overlap between the requirements for the math and physics majors, to the point where just a few additional credits got you both. And it was a time when CS was still being taught in math departments at some colleges, so there were courses that you could take for either CS or math credit. I actually came from the other direction, started as a math major and added physics, which I then studied in grad school. In my view the affinity between physics and programming (and electronics) is no accident. Physics was computational before the computer age. We ran out of problems that could be solved in "closed" form, early in the 20th century. The Manhattan Project employed a staff of "computers" who performed calculations on mechanical calculators and punch card machines. Scientific programming predates the software industry. Today, virtually every scientific instrument is computerized, every experiment is automated. My PhD thesis experiment ran on thousands of lines of code. Every physics student learned to program. What they didn't do is pay attention to turning us necessarily into good programmers. Since I didn't take any CS courses, I had to pick that stuff up on my own, and have continued working on improving my programming technique to this day.

hellbannedguy 6y ago

I look back on college, and so many classes seemed like a waste of time. I understand a well rounded education, but so many classes seemed like fluff. I once took a Abnormal Psychology class. It sounded interesting being premed. For half a year we sat in a circle, and talked about feelings. I was so shy that was the last place I would open up. I used to think, If I was honest, I would admit I was still a virgin, and had a deathly fear of public speaking. I loved the teacher though. She really meant well. If I had a kid, I would supplement his education. I would make sure he knew mathematics well. I also think physics should be taught much earlier, along with the finance, and the markets. As a kid, I was interested in woodworking, cars, engines, even electricity, but the teachers had us coloring world maps?

908B64B197 6y ago
> As a kid, I was interested in woodworking, cars, engines, even electricity, but the teachers had us coloring world maps? Wait until you read this [0] [1] [0] https://www.city-journal.org/the-miseducation-of-americas-elites https://www.city-journal.org/the-miseducation-of-americas-el... [1] https://www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/new-course-outlines-prompt-conversations-about-identity-race-in-seattle-classrooms-even-in-math/ https://www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/new-course-outlin...
- a_t48 6y ago
  Care to give a little bit more context?
- xxpor 6y ago
  As Matt Yglesias put it, the first article makes 0 sense. If they don't like what the school is teaching them, pull their kids out! Isn't that the whole point of private school? It's a choice to go there.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - spazrunaway 6y ago
    As if they're not teaching the same things in public schools. And it's sort of frustrating that the woke teach actively fighting supposed oppression in every institution, every workplace, every household, and really every imaginable part of life in order to be an 'ally', lest your 'white silence' and complicity encourage 'violence'...and the rest of us are told that if we don't like something, we should just shut up and avoid it.
    - xirbeosbwo1234 6y ago
      They aren't teaching the same things in public schools. (I doubt they're teaching them in that prep school, either, but I haven't looked into it.)

dataflow 6y ago

> My school basically expected you’d double major in math or CS Coding knowledge is becoming a matter of literacy for more and more professions, so it might be worth trying to pick up a bit of it before it's too late - lockdown might be an especially good time.

cammikebrown 6y ago
I'm nearly 32, I took introductory coding classes and got straight As but I can't seem to get past more complicated projects. I'm not sure if my brain is wired for it, I have a very hard time finding bugs that are sitting right in front of me, and thinking about loops for too long makes my head hurt. I've certainly tried, I'm considering getting a Mac for dev because Windows is so painful to try and learn any coding. Seriously, I'll copy and paste stuff and it just won't run or it'll give an error on Windows, every single time.
- ksd482 6y ago
  It takes time. I have been developing software for more than a decade now and I am still learning a lot of things that seem to be basic. Your knowledge and experience will increase linearly. Mac would definitely be my choice.
- moron4hire 6y ago
  It's highly unlikely any of your problems have anything to do with working from Windows. You're likely to experience the same problems on MacOS.
  - a-nikolaev 6y ago
    Yep, you can learn programming in any OS. (OS is mostly orthogonal to programming itself really.) Especially if you are using something popular like Python that is available for almost any platform.
- mettamage 6y ago
  > Seriously, I'll copy and paste stuff and it just won't run or it'll give an error on Windows, every single time. I've had this as well, in part it's because I don't know PowerShell / CMD that well. I'd go for Mac, I did it and never looked back. Buy the new M1 Mac Mini even, if you have the spare money. > I'm not sure if my brain is wired for it, I've thought about this question as my brain partially isn't and learned a thing or two on how to overcome it. My issues: 1. Being detail oriented isn't my strong suit. 2. For a long time I wasn't able to grok it. 3. I have hard time visualizing code. My solutions: 1. Use all kinds of tools that will kill the detail. Simple things like syntax highlighers and linters are a given. The most bang for buck was when I learned how to use a debugger, that was almost 10 years ago. 2. Follow a computer systems course like NAND2Tetris and after that hack computers at hackthebox.eu (especially the x86-64 assembly challenges). By understanding the internals of how computers work at a systems level, you essentially are capable of grokking a lot more. Take a compilers course while you're at it, I failed mine, but learned a lot from it anyway that helped to grok more stuff. 3. Debuggers help here as well, practicing pure math helps (I'm not good at that either) and simply doing data structure and algorithm exercises help. --- I've learned over time that making a statement like "my brain isn't wired for it" isn't helping. In part this is because it isn't true, what I was lacking was a certain perspective that comes quicker to some people. For me, it took some time, but now I have it :)

hinkley 6y ago

My friend figured this out and pivoted to a CS degree. Then got both because it was only another semester of classes.

cammikebrown 6y ago
My physics program had zero programming requirements.

analog31 6y ago

>>> My school basically expected you’d double major in math or CS, so they often didn’t teach a lot of the fundamental techniques you needed, assuming you knew it already. Indeed, it was some decades ago, but at my college, there was substantial overlap between the requirements for the math and physics majors, to the point where just a few additional credits got you both. And it was a time when CS was still being taught in math departments at some colleges, so there were courses that you could take for either CS or math credit. I actually came from the other direction, started as a math major and added physics, which I then studied in grad school. In my view the affinity between physics and programming (and electronics) is no accident. Physics was computational before the computer age. We ran out of problems that could be solved in "closed" form, early in the 20th century. The Manhattan Project employed a staff of "computers" who performed calculations on mechanical calculators and punch card machines. Scientific programming predates the software industry. Today, virtually every scientific instrument is computerized, every experiment is automated. My PhD thesis experiment ran on thousands of lines of code. Every physics student learned to program. What they didn't do is pay attention to turning us necessarily into good programmers. Since I didn't take any CS courses, I had to pick that stuff up on my own, and have continued working on improving my programming technique to this day.