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This is why it boggles my mind schools bother teaching low level standard library operating systems coding. Not only is the likelihood of me needing to know how

This is why it boggles my mind schools bother teaching low level standard library operating systems coding. Not only is the likelihood of me needing to know how to implement my own scheduler, bit also dynamically allocating memory. The system is so low level that the only way you will ever do that is if you work with MS, Apple, or contribute to Linux. Which I'd wager is only a single digit percentage of programmers worldwide.

BeFlatXIII 5y ago
To be honest, your example here reminded me of the standard pre-med chemistry curriculum many of my classmates were in. It has an extended focus on building up from fundamentals that I am not sure pays off once it’s time to handle the high-level concepts. The chemistry sequence is something like gen chem |> o chem |> bio chem |> pharmacology. My understanding is that most of the pharmacology fundamentals are not used by MDs in practice: it’s usually only a dedicated PharmD, MD/PhD, or the EMR who considers the chemistry of various drugs on a regular basis. The other thing that comes to mind is the quip that it’s easier to innovate down the stack than up the stack. Apple can design new chips better than Intel can create an operating system.
nonameiguess 5y ago
Schools are also trying to prepare people who might be going to grad school and into research careers. Computer Science is still an academic discipline, not just a vocational major. Very little research goes into creating user-facing consumer apps. A ton of research goes into trying to make virtual memory allocators and process schedulers work just a tiny bit better. Pre-med is totally different since it is explicitly vocational. People in it are becoming licensed clinicians. If they want to do medical research, they need to separately pursue a PhD. What more schools need are Software Engineering degrees in addition to Computer Science, maybe even Application Development as its own major or sub-focus within Software Engineering. Some schools have something like this, but at the biggest and most prestigious institutions, there is a huge focus on research.

BeFlatXIII 5y ago

To be honest, your example here reminded me of the standard pre-med chemistry curriculum many of my classmates were in. It has an extended focus on building up from fundamentals that I am not sure pays off once it’s time to handle the high-level concepts. The chemistry sequence is something like gen chem |> o chem |> bio chem |> pharmacology. My understanding is that most of the pharmacology fundamentals are not used by MDs in practice: it’s usually only a dedicated PharmD, MD/PhD, or the EMR who considers the chemistry of various drugs on a regular basis. The other thing that comes to mind is the quip that it’s easier to innovate down the stack than up the stack. Apple can design new chips better than Intel can create an operating system.

nonameiguess 5y ago

Schools are also trying to prepare people who might be going to grad school and into research careers. Computer Science is still an academic discipline, not just a vocational major. Very little research goes into creating user-facing consumer apps. A ton of research goes into trying to make virtual memory allocators and process schedulers work just a tiny bit better. Pre-med is totally different since it is explicitly vocational. People in it are becoming licensed clinicians. If they want to do medical research, they need to separately pursue a PhD. What more schools need are Software Engineering degrees in addition to Computer Science, maybe even Application Development as its own major or sub-focus within Software Engineering. Some schools have something like this, but at the biggest and most prestigious institutions, there is a huge focus on research.