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You're wrong but for the right reasons: all of academic software pedagogy is about "abstractions" because academics do not work for a living (they teach). That'

You're wrong but for the right reasons: all of academic software pedagogy is about "abstractions" because academics do not work for a living (they teach). That's why whenever I hear anyone use the word abstraction I bucket them under roughly the same category (people who write software that does not matter). Think about it: if you can afford to not care about cache misses or latencies or memory hierarchies or any of the other physical details which are extremely specific (the opposite of abstract) then you are writing code that has no constraints. no scale, no externalities.

rurban 6mo ago
Fine and dandy, but 40x faster trumps all algorithmic theories. You need to teach and implement cache-oblivious algos.
- mathisfun123 6mo ago
  I think you misunderstood me - I agree with you. I'm pointing out that academics are incapable of that.
malnourish 6mo ago
You use abstractions every day. Interfaces are abstractions. Perhaps you are simply being flippant, or rather abstract with your words.
- mathisfun123 6mo ago
  i have no idea what that has to do with anything - i use a toilet every day as well.
coldtea 6mo ago
Almost everything you use came from academics and research labs.
- mathisfun123 6mo ago
  lol you joking? point to a single piece of software on your computer that is maintained by academics/researchers ("came from" means absolutely nothing - this isn't a discussion about royalties or credit).
  - coldtea 6mo ago
    Weasely moving the goalposts. If we were stuck with mere "maintaining", you'd still be using the most primitive CPU and OS. Besides, once something is invented and shaped and studied, even a monkey can maintain it. The point is the things that you get to use, and tech industry gets to maintain, come from research in the academic fields, in corporate R&D research labs from people with PhDs and everything (from Xerox's to Googles and Anthropics), and of course from direct parterships with universities as well. Not as in "they created that in 1976", as in: the past, the current, and the next things you'll use, will come from that too. This includes anything from Algol, Lisp and OO and TeX to Monads, and Futures, and Prototype inheritance, and NNs and LLMs.
    - mathisfun123 6mo ago
      my guy this is the most bog standard defense of academia that exists - that they are the original progenitors of everything. it's not even true (industry pioneers plenty of things, especially in tech/swe) but even if it were, it would still be banal because by the same logic i might as well be worshipping prokaryotes instead of academics. > in corporate R&D research labs from people with PhDs lol tell me you've never been in a research group without telling me. hate to break it to you, as someone with a PhD and as someone who spent some time in an industry research group at the beginning of their career, almost nothing comes out of these groups in tech (the stuff that does see the light of day is the exception that proves the rule).

rurban 6mo ago

Fine and dandy, but 40x faster trumps all algorithmic theories. You need to teach and implement cache-oblivious algos.

mathisfun123 6mo ago
I think you misunderstood me - I agree with you. I'm pointing out that academics are incapable of that.

malnourish 6mo ago

You use abstractions every day. Interfaces are abstractions. Perhaps you are simply being flippant, or rather abstract with your words.

mathisfun123 6mo ago
i have no idea what that has to do with anything - i use a toilet every day as well.

coldtea 6mo ago

Almost everything you use came from academics and research labs.

mathisfun123 6mo ago
lol you joking? point to a single piece of software on your computer that is maintained by academics/researchers ("came from" means absolutely nothing - this isn't a discussion about royalties or credit).
- coldtea 6mo ago
  Weasely moving the goalposts. If we were stuck with mere "maintaining", you'd still be using the most primitive CPU and OS. Besides, once something is invented and shaped and studied, even a monkey can maintain it. The point is the things that you get to use, and tech industry gets to maintain, come from research in the academic fields, in corporate R&D research labs from people with PhDs and everything (from Xerox's to Googles and Anthropics), and of course from direct parterships with universities as well. Not as in "they created that in 1976", as in: the past, the current, and the next things you'll use, will come from that too. This includes anything from Algol, Lisp and OO and TeX to Monads, and Futures, and Prototype inheritance, and NNs and LLMs.
  - mathisfun123 6mo ago
    my guy this is the most bog standard defense of academia that exists - that they are the original progenitors of everything. it's not even true (industry pioneers plenty of things, especially in tech/swe) but even if it were, it would still be banal because by the same logic i might as well be worshipping prokaryotes instead of academics. > in corporate R&D research labs from people with PhDs lol tell me you've never been in a research group without telling me. hate to break it to you, as someone with a PhD and as someone who spent some time in an industry research group at the beginning of their career, almost nothing comes out of these groups in tech (the stuff that does see the light of day is the exception that proves the rule).