4 ms·

Maybe the perception is because of the larger percentage in each group. Self Taught -> Already is curious, be default, so 99%-100% are curious. Just by the na

Maybe the perception is because of the larger percentage in each group. Self Taught -> Already is curious, be default, so 99%-100% are curious. Just by the nature of going out of the way to learn something. Educated -> Also has a curious % in the group, but also has the large group of complacent "i heard software makes money so i'm hear to learn it, but i don't know what i'm doing". So when you do find complacent, they mostly came from the educated path.

bayindirh 1y ago
That's my experience as well. People came to CS because they love computers and want to learn how they work were so different than "I just want a job which makes money" people in every way even in the university years. Curious people got high on the caffeine and code, and the other group just got high.
- aatd86 1y ago
  All I know is that if my coding ability had been measured through mandatory assignments that I would be force-fed without any immediate need, I would have been disgusted. "Locking-in" on some esoteric topics just because one wants to is probably the best way to improve in my opinion. On the other hand I have been through a pretty generalist undergrad education in engineering and it helped in acquiring general math, physics, chemistry knowledge.
  - bayindirh 1y ago
    I also went through a very generalist CS course, that we call Computer Engineering, which covered from hardware to software plus math, physics, chemistry. I was already a nerd when I was attending the university. My chance was my instructors and professors let me roam free and convert every assignment to a rabbit hole. Poisoned by demoscene earlier, I was already an elegance/performance freak before even I got graduated, and this made me dive into unknown territory head-on instead of being afraid of it. I have written a compression algorithm from scratch for graduation, then written a multi-agent trading system for M.Sc. project. For Ph.D. I have written a BEM based material simulation which was able to saturate the system very effectively, reaching practical IPC limits of the processors it ran on.
Nicook 1y ago
not all self taught are curious, at least recent batches.
SecretDreams 1y ago
Ya, agreed. I even tried to allude to as much.
michaelcampbell 1y ago
This goes both ways. I think the vast majority of my colleagues who got into CS later post-college did it because they needed a job, and that's where jobs were. > Self Taught -> Already is curious, be default, so 99%-100% are curious. There is some of this but IME that % is half your estimate, if not lower. It could be different in today's market because CS IS NOT where a lot of jobs are, and my observations are based on when it was very very hot, so there's that. But, no matter what you or I say anecdata is not data, but in my 30+ years of doing this, I find these broad generalizations mostly wrong.

bayindirh 1y ago

That's my experience as well. People came to CS because they love computers and want to learn how they work were so different than "I just want a job which makes money" people in every way even in the university years. Curious people got high on the caffeine and code, and the other group just got high.

aatd86 1y ago
All I know is that if my coding ability had been measured through mandatory assignments that I would be force-fed without any immediate need, I would have been disgusted. "Locking-in" on some esoteric topics just because one wants to is probably the best way to improve in my opinion. On the other hand I have been through a pretty generalist undergrad education in engineering and it helped in acquiring general math, physics, chemistry knowledge.
- bayindirh 1y ago
  I also went through a very generalist CS course, that we call Computer Engineering, which covered from hardware to software plus math, physics, chemistry. I was already a nerd when I was attending the university. My chance was my instructors and professors let me roam free and convert every assignment to a rabbit hole. Poisoned by demoscene earlier, I was already an elegance/performance freak before even I got graduated, and this made me dive into unknown territory head-on instead of being afraid of it. I have written a compression algorithm from scratch for graduation, then written a multi-agent trading system for M.Sc. project. For Ph.D. I have written a BEM based material simulation which was able to saturate the system very effectively, reaching practical IPC limits of the processors it ran on.

Nicook 1y ago

not all self taught are curious, at least recent batches.

SecretDreams 1y ago

Ya, agreed. I even tried to allude to as much.

michaelcampbell 1y ago

This goes both ways. I think the vast majority of my colleagues who got into CS later post-college did it because they needed a job, and that's where jobs were. > Self Taught -> Already is curious, be default, so 99%-100% are curious. There is some of this but IME that % is half your estimate, if not lower. It could be different in today's market because CS IS NOT where a lot of jobs are, and my observations are based on when it was very very hot, so there's that. But, no matter what you or I say anecdata is not data, but in my 30+ years of doing this, I find these broad generalizations mostly wrong.