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This is a point of frustration to me. It seems like there's a significant disconnect between research in academia and research in the real world. Beyond that,

This is a point of frustration to me. It seems like there's a significant disconnect between research in academia and research in the real world. Beyond that, a lot of software engineering research doesn't seem to be easily reachable or discovered unless you're in academia. Real world software engineering has to ship a real working product, while academic software engineering only has to produce a paper. Maybe that's an unfair representation though.

sheikheddy 5y ago
Try reading some of the older, classic papers. I think those have taught me a lot about the fundamentals.
- 0des 5y ago
  There could be the next Knuth among us. Excited to see what they bring.
  - BoiledCabbage 5y ago
    Either optimizing ad-clicks on the web. Or a new NFT crypto tie in sham.
- debbiedowner 5y ago
  What's your list of classic papers for language models for code, static analysis, or code summarization?
corpMaverick 5y ago
I feel that in the past there were more products shipped by Academics. Unix BSD from Berkley, Minix from Tanembaum, Kermit from Columbia, Pascal from USCD; Pascal, Modula and Oberon from N. Wirth, etc. Building these products would be a great teaching tool and contribution to society. Also there could be a lot of research done on how to build complex software where the product is the software itself and it can be applied to other sciences that badly need software. I for one would love to get a graduate degree while building some product where I get to try different software design approaches.
hinkley 5y ago
I told a coworker once that I subscribed to the ACM (which I don’t anymore), and he looked at me like I’d just parted the Red Sea. He was amazed I could understand them. I told him I could only understand about half (closer to 3/4) which mollified him a bit. There are any number of reasons I have stayed engineering track instead of going into management but the biggest is that talking about things and doing them are vastly different, and we’ve structured management and research around talking. Some days I worry I may know more about project management than I know about cloud or React, but it would kill me to be telling people how to do the job that I’m not also doing, and if I don’t like how they did it, have only words available to get it fixed. In one of my hobbies, time and the pandemic have slowed me down quite a bit and I’m trying to manage more and do less, but unlike work there are plenty of opportunities to lead by doing. Doing 5-10% of the work and then guiding people to do the rest is socially acceptable. In software we sometimes call that a lead developer, but that definition changes from situation to situation. But the more you do the less influence you tend to have on what you’re doing and why. Is that human nature or leftover from feudalism?
ModernMech 5y ago
> It seems like there's a significant disconnect between research in academia and research in the real world. It's funny, back in my undergrad days I would walk past the Google offices that opened near my campus. I'd look in and see a giant wall-sized candy machine, primary colors everywhere, bean bags, pool tables, an air hockey table. I honestly thought it was a daycare of some kind until I asked someone why there's never any kids in there. This is what they call the "real world" apparently, as a contrast to what goes on in academia. I can definitely say that in all my years in academia, I've never been treated to a candy wall.

sheikheddy 5y ago

Try reading some of the older, classic papers. I think those have taught me a lot about the fundamentals.

0des 5y ago
There could be the next Knuth among us. Excited to see what they bring.
- BoiledCabbage 5y ago
  Either optimizing ad-clicks on the web. Or a new NFT crypto tie in sham.
debbiedowner 5y ago
What's your list of classic papers for language models for code, static analysis, or code summarization?

corpMaverick 5y ago

I feel that in the past there were more products shipped by Academics. Unix BSD from Berkley, Minix from Tanembaum, Kermit from Columbia, Pascal from USCD; Pascal, Modula and Oberon from N. Wirth, etc. Building these products would be a great teaching tool and contribution to society. Also there could be a lot of research done on how to build complex software where the product is the software itself and it can be applied to other sciences that badly need software. I for one would love to get a graduate degree while building some product where I get to try different software design approaches.

hinkley 5y ago

I told a coworker once that I subscribed to the ACM (which I don’t anymore), and he looked at me like I’d just parted the Red Sea. He was amazed I could understand them. I told him I could only understand about half (closer to 3/4) which mollified him a bit. There are any number of reasons I have stayed engineering track instead of going into management but the biggest is that talking about things and doing them are vastly different, and we’ve structured management and research around talking. Some days I worry I may know more about project management than I know about cloud or React, but it would kill me to be telling people how to do the job that I’m not also doing, and if I don’t like how they did it, have only words available to get it fixed. In one of my hobbies, time and the pandemic have slowed me down quite a bit and I’m trying to manage more and do less, but unlike work there are plenty of opportunities to lead by doing. Doing 5-10% of the work and then guiding people to do the rest is socially acceptable. In software we sometimes call that a lead developer, but that definition changes from situation to situation. But the more you do the less influence you tend to have on what you’re doing and why. Is that human nature or leftover from feudalism?

ModernMech 5y ago

> It seems like there's a significant disconnect between research in academia and research in the real world. It's funny, back in my undergrad days I would walk past the Google offices that opened near my campus. I'd look in and see a giant wall-sized candy machine, primary colors everywhere, bean bags, pool tables, an air hockey table. I honestly thought it was a daycare of some kind until I asked someone why there's never any kids in there. This is what they call the "real world" apparently, as a contrast to what goes on in academia. I can definitely say that in all my years in academia, I've never been treated to a candy wall.