3 ms·

Hey, this is good. And it inspired the guy to go deeper into some of the subjects! Sometimes, a problem is that people only go to sponge learning...and then st

by seagaia 15y ago

Hey, this is good. And it inspired the guy to go deeper into some of the subjects! Sometimes, a problem is that people only go to sponge learning...and then stop. As a professor of my friend's said...people are getting better and better at being able to talk about something for five minutes...then that's it. Thanks to wikipedia, lots of people can seem smart, but not actually understand something in depth. I find XKCD also to blame for part of this. If I had a dollar for every time someone made a joke about the Axiom of Choice...

FrojoS 15y ago
Good observation. Ironically there is an xkcd comic about this, too. http://xkcd.com/903/ http://xkcd.com/903/ Frankly, I probably have to watch out myself to not fall into this trap. I'm not a CS major either and yes, its true I can probably bullshit for 5 minutes on many topics that I read about here or learned from friends.
LukeShu 15y ago
I feel like this is a problem too. You actually got me thinking about this, and since I don't think I do this, how I avoid it. I don't think I do anymore. I mean, I do less than other people, but I don't go deeper like I used to. I think the solution, is books. I'm normally a little disdainful of those who have bookcases of technical (read: computer/programming) books, I can get the same or better info on the Internet (certain books excluded, but these books don't take entire bookcases). But this is because I've progressed far enough in my understanding of this field that I wouldn't benefit particularly much from these books. Which, I think is why my learning in other areas has slowed, I no longer go to the bookstore. That means I don't by chance pick up a book on extra-dimensional physics. Because I don't need a book to help me pick up CodeIgniter or Python. This, of course, implies a tendency I have, to not go shopping, I only go into a store if I know what I'm going to buy. I think that it is hugely beneficial to just walk through a bookstore, and just pick up a book on a subject that is interesting to you, that you _don't_ know a lot about.
- spacemanaki 15y ago
  I think Rich Hickey's Clojure bookshelf is a testament to the fact that much of the really deep stuff is still in books. Sadly many of these books aren't even on the shelves of a brick & mortar bookstore. http://www.amazon.com/Clojure-Bookshelf/lm/R3LG3ZBZS4GCTH http://www.amazon.com/Clojure-Bookshelf/lm/R3LG3ZBZS4GCTH
- seagaia 15y ago
  Usually books are interesting and useful. CS seems to be a different thing, as most things are available online for free, and there is a large community. Bookstores are still fun to go to (although I feel like they may be a dying breed). It always helps to work on exercises (for stuff like math), but for CS, to pick something interesting you want to do in a language(s), but is small - and that can be a hard part. It's getting harder for me to figure out what to use a language for - picking up a language's syntax and nuances is relatively easy (okay, excluding Haskell), but it's worthless unless you have something you want to work on.
JonWood 15y ago
I agree to an extent - there is a lot of stuff that I know just enough about to be able to say "I know of it", but there are only so many hours in the day. When it comes to starting a project all the stuff that I know of comes in useful, because I can fairly quickly determine which particular tools will be most useful in that circumstance and then start learning about them in more depth.

by seagaia 15y ago

FrojoS 15y ago

Good observation. Ironically there is an xkcd comic about this, too. http://xkcd.com/903/ http://xkcd.com/903/ Frankly, I probably have to watch out myself to not fall into this trap. I'm not a CS major either and yes, its true I can probably bullshit for 5 minutes on many topics that I read about here or learned from friends.

LukeShu 15y ago

I feel like this is a problem too. You actually got me thinking about this, and since I don't think I do this, how I avoid it. I don't think I do anymore. I mean, I do less than other people, but I don't go deeper like I used to. I think the solution, is books. I'm normally a little disdainful of those who have bookcases of technical (read: computer/programming) books, I can get the same or better info on the Internet (certain books excluded, but these books don't take entire bookcases). But this is because I've progressed far enough in my understanding of this field that I wouldn't benefit particularly much from these books. Which, I think is why my learning in other areas has slowed, I no longer go to the bookstore. That means I don't by chance pick up a book on extra-dimensional physics. Because I don't need a book to help me pick up CodeIgniter or Python. This, of course, implies a tendency I have, to not go shopping, I only go into a store if I know what I'm going to buy. I think that it is hugely beneficial to just walk through a bookstore, and just pick up a book on a subject that is interesting to you, that you _don't_ know a lot about.

spacemanaki 15y ago
I think Rich Hickey's Clojure bookshelf is a testament to the fact that much of the really deep stuff is still in books. Sadly many of these books aren't even on the shelves of a brick & mortar bookstore. http://www.amazon.com/Clojure-Bookshelf/lm/R3LG3ZBZS4GCTH http://www.amazon.com/Clojure-Bookshelf/lm/R3LG3ZBZS4GCTH
seagaia 15y ago
Usually books are interesting and useful. CS seems to be a different thing, as most things are available online for free, and there is a large community. Bookstores are still fun to go to (although I feel like they may be a dying breed). It always helps to work on exercises (for stuff like math), but for CS, to pick something interesting you want to do in a language(s), but is small - and that can be a hard part. It's getting harder for me to figure out what to use a language for - picking up a language's syntax and nuances is relatively easy (okay, excluding Haskell), but it's worthless unless you have something you want to work on.

JonWood 15y ago

I agree to an extent - there is a lot of stuff that I know just enough about to be able to say "I know of it", but there are only so many hours in the day. When it comes to starting a project all the stuff that I know of comes in useful, because I can fairly quickly determine which particular tools will be most useful in that circumstance and then start learning about them in more depth.