3 ms·

One of worst failures/dropouts I saw at university were the guys smart enough to do entire high school without any significant effort (ie my roommate left books

One of worst failures/dropouts I saw at university were the guys smart enough to do entire high school without any significant effort (ie my roommate left books at school and aced it, in stark contrast with me). Then they eventually reached subject on uni where some serious effort was required even from them, and many just couldn't get themselves through the suck. Unlike say me who was already used to put effort into getting through, and just increased it a bit when it mattered.

gnicholas 3y ago
Yes, this is why it's important for all students to be given the chance to be challenged, so that they can't skate through HS, which sets (some of) them up to be caught off-guard by university.
jml78 3y ago
This was me but I eventually realized that just showing up to my university classes and paying attention was enough to pass. My issue was that I didn’t even want to put the effort into attending classes. I failed one class almost every semester due to not showing up. High school I didn’t even pay attention in class and still passed without any issue. I never learned how to study. And ultimately knowing how to study doesn’t really help you in the software world IMO.
- willprice89 3y ago
  It depends what you're working on. Good luck implementing a functioning network stack if you can't buckle down and work your way through a few dozen RFCs.
  - jml78 3y ago
    I think it depends on what you mean by studying. My view is that college studying is having to memorize everything required to pass tests. I can easily read RFCs and then apply that knowledge. But I don't need to memorize shit because if I need a detail, I can just go grab the RFC again and grab the info I need. It is why when I was in college, all my lab work in any subject, computer science, chemistry, etc, was my strength. I could put the knowledge to use. But if I had to memorize shit to regurgitate on a test, I had issues.

gnicholas 3y ago

Yes, this is why it's important for all students to be given the chance to be challenged, so that they can't skate through HS, which sets (some of) them up to be caught off-guard by university.

jml78 3y ago

This was me but I eventually realized that just showing up to my university classes and paying attention was enough to pass. My issue was that I didn’t even want to put the effort into attending classes. I failed one class almost every semester due to not showing up. High school I didn’t even pay attention in class and still passed without any issue. I never learned how to study. And ultimately knowing how to study doesn’t really help you in the software world IMO.

willprice89 3y ago
It depends what you're working on. Good luck implementing a functioning network stack if you can't buckle down and work your way through a few dozen RFCs.
- jml78 3y ago
  I think it depends on what you mean by studying. My view is that college studying is having to memorize everything required to pass tests. I can easily read RFCs and then apply that knowledge. But I don't need to memorize shit because if I need a detail, I can just go grab the RFC again and grab the info I need. It is why when I was in college, all my lab work in any subject, computer science, chemistry, etc, was my strength. I could put the knowledge to use. But if I had to memorize shit to regurgitate on a test, I had issues.