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Aren't there already plenty of courses and books out there about algorithms, data structures, RDBMS, etc? I have a pretty good background in a lot of that (can

Aren't there already plenty of courses and books out there about algorithms, data structures, RDBMS, etc? I have a pretty good background in a lot of that (can always learn more of course), but I don't know anything about Hadoop and MapReduce (which is conveniently not mentioned in your critique, probably because it does fall under your list of acceptable topics), so I find this course interesting. I find the claim of "if you know the fundamentals, you don't need a course in that" to be dubious. Essentially you are saying that any learning material specifically targeting Hadoop is unnecessary? Don't worry though, I'm not looking for some quick fix to my business needs, I'm not going to go out and spin up a Hadoop cluster on my 500GB of production data, I just want to learn. You're arguing more against your perceived motivations of the course-takers than the validity of the course itself.

stiff 13y ago
What really annoys me is this particular blog post, not just the existence of the course, for example this thing: “What is Big Data?” They will teach you fundamental principles of Hadoop, MapReduce, and how to make sense of big data. Developers will learn skills that provide fundamental building blocks towards deriving maximum value from the world's data. Technologists and business managers will gain the knowledge to build a big data strategy around Hadoop. In my experience, to be successful in engineering in general, one has to learn whole design spaces instead of just individual technologies. This means taking a programming languages course instead of another C++ course, taking a distributed systems course instead of taking a Hadoop course, taking a databases course instead of a MySQL course and so forth. You of course have to fiddle around with the various tools as well, but you don't need a course or an instructor for that, otherwise you often end up just following written or spoken instruction which configuration file to edit, what command or query to type, etc., which is actually much _worse_ than self-directed learning. Once you have this theoretical background and bits of varied practical experience, you can do mature decisions about which tool to pick for a particular job. So, I would really, really like to avoid anyone I might have a chance of working with learning about "how to build a big data strategy around XXX", whatever product XXX is. You don't build anything "around" up-front assumed technologies. This is just pumping the "big data" bubble, which is certainly good for Cloudera, which makes a living based on that, but doesn't exactly sound like teaching people to make informed technical judgements. I am also not to partial to the stance that learning Hadoop and MapReduce makes you a big data expert (they offer a certificate in big data after completing the course). And no, there is nowhere near enough algorithms courses at all. The things taught in most undergradute algorithms courses are often not really the things you need for practical large scale data processing. I posted the Jeff Ullman book precisely as an example of how good courses in handling data might look like. This material is taught very rarely.
- bcbrown 13y ago
  If you have any suggestions for online courses or other self-learning resources for distributed systems, I would be much obliged. The Ullman book is already in my queue.
- JPKab 13y ago
  The Ullman book is intimidating to say the least. I'm frankly humbled at how little I know. Thanks for posting it. I'm going to be spending a lot of evenings on it.
- asafira 13y ago
  A lot of universities are definitely trying to push more and more of these sorts of courses though; check out, for example, cs229r at Harvard: http://people.seas.harvard.edu/~minilek/cs229r/index.html http://people.seas.harvard.edu/~minilek/cs229r/index.html , along with some other course examples at the bottom of that page. Do you think things are changing for the better in this manner?

stiff 13y ago

What really annoys me is this particular blog post, not just the existence of the course, for example this thing: “What is Big Data?” They will teach you fundamental principles of Hadoop, MapReduce, and how to make sense of big data. Developers will learn skills that provide fundamental building blocks towards deriving maximum value from the world's data. Technologists and business managers will gain the knowledge to build a big data strategy around Hadoop. In my experience, to be successful in engineering in general, one has to learn whole design spaces instead of just individual technologies. This means taking a programming languages course instead of another C++ course, taking a distributed systems course instead of taking a Hadoop course, taking a databases course instead of a MySQL course and so forth. You of course have to fiddle around with the various tools as well, but you don't need a course or an instructor for that, otherwise you often end up just following written or spoken instruction which configuration file to edit, what command or query to type, etc., which is actually much _worse_ than self-directed learning. Once you have this theoretical background and bits of varied practical experience, you can do mature decisions about which tool to pick for a particular job. So, I would really, really like to avoid anyone I might have a chance of working with learning about "how to build a big data strategy around XXX", whatever product XXX is. You don't build anything "around" up-front assumed technologies. This is just pumping the "big data" bubble, which is certainly good for Cloudera, which makes a living based on that, but doesn't exactly sound like teaching people to make informed technical judgements. I am also not to partial to the stance that learning Hadoop and MapReduce makes you a big data expert (they offer a certificate in big data after completing the course). And no, there is nowhere near enough algorithms courses at all. The things taught in most undergradute algorithms courses are often not really the things you need for practical large scale data processing. I posted the Jeff Ullman book precisely as an example of how good courses in handling data might look like. This material is taught very rarely.

bcbrown 13y ago
If you have any suggestions for online courses or other self-learning resources for distributed systems, I would be much obliged. The Ullman book is already in my queue.
JPKab 13y ago
The Ullman book is intimidating to say the least. I'm frankly humbled at how little I know. Thanks for posting it. I'm going to be spending a lot of evenings on it.
asafira 13y ago
A lot of universities are definitely trying to push more and more of these sorts of courses though; check out, for example, cs229r at Harvard: http://people.seas.harvard.edu/~minilek/cs229r/index.html http://people.seas.harvard.edu/~minilek/cs229r/index.html , along with some other course examples at the bottom of that page. Do you think things are changing for the better in this manner?