4 ms·

> “I have all this experience but I suffer from a thing that almost every person who doesn’t have an actual background in CS does: I have islands of knowledge w

by NAFV_P 12y ago

> “I have all this experience but I suffer from a thing that almost every person who doesn’t have an actual background in CS does: I have islands of knowledge with big gaps in between,” she said. “Every time I'd come across some concept, some data structure in the kernel, I'd have to go educate myself on it.” I get the impression that Morgan Phillips avoids saying she has a background in CS due to not holding a degree in it. I think she has every right to state that she does have a background (being classified as a hacker goes without saying). Now, I am going to compile her poetry.

doktrin 12y ago
> I get the impression that Morgan Phillips avoids saying she has a background in CS due to not holding a degree in it. I think she has every right to state that she does have a background That seems a bit semantic to me. She's basically saying "I never studied or worked extensively with X, so I have knowledge gaps about Y [which is tightly related to X, and often comes by studying X]". As another researcher who is also sans-degree, I can see where she's coming from. To someone outside the field I would never split hairs about whether or not I have a formal CS background, whereas I might when speaking with a colleague or a professional peer.
- NAFV_P 12y ago
  > That seems a bit semantic to me. She's basically saying "I never studied or worked extensively with X, so I have knowledge gaps about Y [which is tightly related to X, and often comes by studying X]". You can apply that to professionals in certain scenarios. Referring to my original quote: “Every time I'd come across some concept, some data structure in the kernel, I'd have to go educate myself on it.” The only difference between someone who has a formal CS background and someone who doesn't, is that the former is given a lot of guidance by one of the most sophisticated data processors on Earth - the human brain, the latter has to bootstrap their knowledge. You didn't mention your area of research, I would be interested in knowing.
probablybanned 12y ago
Really? Go take a look at the two code snippets in "The Reentrant Kernel." I can't tell what the salient difference is supposed to be between them, much less how they are meant to illustrate the concept of reentrancy. I mean, I appreciate the concept of what she's doing here, but that self-assessment sounds reasonable to me.
- NAFV_P 12y ago
  > I mean, I appreciate the concept of what she's doing here, but that self-assessment sounds reasonable to me. I would use "realistic", as opposed to "reasonable", look hard enough and you will see that everyone has gaps in their knowledge.
  - probablybanned 12y ago
    That's a vacuous statement. She said "big" gaps. And I'm saying that she's making errors that no one with a background in CS (e.g. a degree) ought to make. I have no idea what your agenda is in lavishing all this unnecessary praise on Morgan Phillips, but it's gross. Please stop.
    - mrrrgn 12y ago
      I don't have any desire to be lavished in praise; but you're being unnecessarily rude I think. :[
      - probablybanned 12y ago
        Hey, I picked this username for a reason.
    - NAFV_P 12y ago
      > That's a vacuous statement. She said "big" gaps. And I'm saying that she's making errors that no one with a background in CS (e.g. a degree) ought to make. I have no idea what your agenda is in lavishing all this unnecessary praise on Morgan Phillips, but it's gross. Please stop. Is your name Linus Torvalds by any chance?
PhasmaFelis 12y ago
Ha! Wouldn't it be lovely if having a "background" in CS actually made you as knowledgeable as Phillips thinks it does? I've got a CS degree and 10 years of industry experience, and I'm still at clueless as she is and probably more.
- paraiuspau 12y ago
  This is a realistic and humble view - thank you.
- emmelaich 12y ago
  She was a physics major. There seems to be a strong correlation between physicists and good computer scientists:- Knuth, Dijkstra for example.
  - NAFV_P 12y ago
    IIRC RMS has a good background in physics. Seymore Cray worked with radios during WWII and had a very strong background in electrical engineering. He had to rely on Maxwell's equations to analyse signal paths [0]. The bottom anecdote [1] I found highly amusing, very "egg and chicken". [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Cray#Technical_approaches http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Cray#Technical_approach... [1] http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/gbell/craytalk/sld089.htm http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/gbell/craytalk...
- NAFV_P 12y ago
  > I've got a CS degree and 10 years of industry experience, and I'm still at clueless as she is and probably more.* Realising that you are clueless keeps you on your toes. Henri Poincare [0] is sometimes called "the last polymath" in mathematical circles, specialisation in subjects increases geometrically with time. Modern CS I would say dates back to the 1930's with guys like Neumann, Turing and Church. A mere 80 years and the subject has just ballooned. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Poincar%C3%A9 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Poincar%C3%A9

by NAFV_P 12y ago

doktrin 12y ago

> I get the impression that Morgan Phillips avoids saying she has a background in CS due to not holding a degree in it. I think she has every right to state that she does have a background That seems a bit semantic to me. She's basically saying "I never studied or worked extensively with X, so I have knowledge gaps about Y [which is tightly related to X, and often comes by studying X]". As another researcher who is also sans-degree, I can see where she's coming from. To someone outside the field I would never split hairs about whether or not I have a formal CS background, whereas I might when speaking with a colleague or a professional peer.

NAFV_P 12y ago
> That seems a bit semantic to me. She's basically saying "I never studied or worked extensively with X, so I have knowledge gaps about Y [which is tightly related to X, and often comes by studying X]". You can apply that to professionals in certain scenarios. Referring to my original quote: “Every time I'd come across some concept, some data structure in the kernel, I'd have to go educate myself on it.” The only difference between someone who has a formal CS background and someone who doesn't, is that the former is given a lot of guidance by one of the most sophisticated data processors on Earth - the human brain, the latter has to bootstrap their knowledge. You didn't mention your area of research, I would be interested in knowing.

probablybanned 12y ago

Really? Go take a look at the two code snippets in "The Reentrant Kernel." I can't tell what the salient difference is supposed to be between them, much less how they are meant to illustrate the concept of reentrancy. I mean, I appreciate the concept of what she's doing here, but that self-assessment sounds reasonable to me.

NAFV_P 12y ago
> I mean, I appreciate the concept of what she's doing here, but that self-assessment sounds reasonable to me. I would use "realistic", as opposed to "reasonable", look hard enough and you will see that everyone has gaps in their knowledge.
- probablybanned 12y ago
  That's a vacuous statement. She said "big" gaps. And I'm saying that she's making errors that no one with a background in CS (e.g. a degree) ought to make. I have no idea what your agenda is in lavishing all this unnecessary praise on Morgan Phillips, but it's gross. Please stop.
  - mrrrgn 12y ago
    I don't have any desire to be lavished in praise; but you're being unnecessarily rude I think. :[
    - probablybanned 12y ago
      Hey, I picked this username for a reason.
  - NAFV_P 12y ago
    > That's a vacuous statement. She said "big" gaps. And I'm saying that she's making errors that no one with a background in CS (e.g. a degree) ought to make. I have no idea what your agenda is in lavishing all this unnecessary praise on Morgan Phillips, but it's gross. Please stop. Is your name Linus Torvalds by any chance?

PhasmaFelis 12y ago

Ha! Wouldn't it be lovely if having a "background" in CS actually made you as knowledgeable as Phillips thinks it does? I've got a CS degree and 10 years of industry experience, and I'm still at clueless as she is and probably more.

paraiuspau 12y ago
This is a realistic and humble view - thank you.
emmelaich 12y ago
She was a physics major. There seems to be a strong correlation between physicists and good computer scientists:- Knuth, Dijkstra for example.
- NAFV_P 12y ago
  IIRC RMS has a good background in physics. Seymore Cray worked with radios during WWII and had a very strong background in electrical engineering. He had to rely on Maxwell's equations to analyse signal paths [0]. The bottom anecdote [1] I found highly amusing, very "egg and chicken". [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Cray#Technical_approaches http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Cray#Technical_approach... [1] http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/gbell/craytalk/sld089.htm http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/gbell/craytalk...
NAFV_P 12y ago
> I've got a CS degree and 10 years of industry experience, and I'm still at clueless as she is and probably more.* Realising that you are clueless keeps you on your toes. Henri Poincare [0] is sometimes called "the last polymath" in mathematical circles, specialisation in subjects increases geometrically with time. Modern CS I would say dates back to the 1930's with guys like Neumann, Turing and Church. A mere 80 years and the subject has just ballooned. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Poincar%C3%A9 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Poincar%C3%A9