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I studied Philosophy at Reed College. The department there is biased toward the analytic side, which means I mostly studied set and number theory, reference and

by jchrisa 15y ago

I studied Philosophy at Reed College. The department there is biased toward the analytic side, which means I mostly studied set and number theory, reference and meaning of language, and other somewhat technical questions. I'm absolutely certain this was better preparation for my current career (writing Erlang and making dorky music videos about CouchDB) than anything I could have learned in a CS program. Maybe other folks wouldn't be adequately prepared to be coders, by learning the basics of predicate logic and theories of naming, but it certainly worked for me. If CS is practical, Philosophy is more practical. :)

vecter 15y ago
That's interesting. Could you elaborate on why you think analytic philosophy better prepared you for a career as an Erlang programmer than a computer science degree?
- jchrisa 15y ago
  The biggest thing I learned in Philosophy, is how not to skip steps. Even the most mundane thing can have a ton of interesting questions hiding inside it. The best way to not skip steps is to train your mind to be in a state of perpetually acknowledging your ignorance. This is hard to do, and I wouldn't consider myself great at it, but the fact that I've identified this as a goal is something I credit to some of the professors I worked with there, Mark Hinchliff in particular.
  - vecter 15y ago
    Sounds like studying math or theoretical computer science would've accomplished the same :)
    - jchrisa 15y ago
      Perhaps, but it is nice that Philosophy is so general. Another side effect of studying it is that it's made me hungry for different perspectives. For most questions, there's a bigger context that can raise potentially more interesting questions. My favorite take on the subject is James Carse's lecture at The Long Now: http://longnow.org/seminars/02005/jan/14/religious-war-in-light-of-the-infinite-game/ http://longnow.org/seminars/02005/jan/14/religious-war-in-li...

by jchrisa 15y ago

vecter 15y ago

That's interesting. Could you elaborate on why you think analytic philosophy better prepared you for a career as an Erlang programmer than a computer science degree?

jchrisa 15y ago
The biggest thing I learned in Philosophy, is how not to skip steps. Even the most mundane thing can have a ton of interesting questions hiding inside it. The best way to not skip steps is to train your mind to be in a state of perpetually acknowledging your ignorance. This is hard to do, and I wouldn't consider myself great at it, but the fact that I've identified this as a goal is something I credit to some of the professors I worked with there, Mark Hinchliff in particular.
- vecter 15y ago
  Sounds like studying math or theoretical computer science would've accomplished the same :)
  - jchrisa 15y ago
    Perhaps, but it is nice that Philosophy is so general. Another side effect of studying it is that it's made me hungry for different perspectives. For most questions, there's a bigger context that can raise potentially more interesting questions. My favorite take on the subject is James Carse's lecture at The Long Now: http://longnow.org/seminars/02005/jan/14/religious-war-in-light-of-the-infinite-game/ http://longnow.org/seminars/02005/jan/14/religious-war-in-li...