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No, don't ask yourself why. Just learn. It's one human activity that never requires a reason

kashif 12y ago
no, don't do this. you have limited time focus what you learn just like everything else
bonobo 12y ago
Time is a limited resource. As much as I'd love to learn everything that I find interesting, I can't find the time to learn all these subjects. The criteria I use to decide when to learn something or not are not like geoka9's, but I still have to ask myself why.
geoka9 12y ago
What I meant is it would be impractical to pick one special topic of CS to study just because it happens to be a mode of the day. It's like deciding to study number theory ("because, you know, cryptography!") in isolation instead of following a sensible math curriculum ("I'm not particularly interested in math") and learning the discipline as it was meant to be learned. In short, I can't think of a "type system specialist" who is not a computer scientist. It sounds sort of like a "loop specialist" who can't program, or a "forehand specialist" who can't play tennis.
- ufo 12y ago
  Type theory specialists outside of CS usually fit under the banner of "Logician". Thats why they go under your radar :)
billsossoon 12y ago
Why does it hurt to ask why? Asking yourself why is also a means of learning. There are so many interesting things to learn, and they're all readily accessible to us. I find myself discovering a new fascinating subject I'd love to learn about each day, and by now the list of fascinating things has grown unmanageable. Asking "why?" can be a good means to to make sense of such a list. At a younger age, I was able to sustain great focus and effort on learning something without ever asking myself why. This approach helped me earn a doctoral degree on an obscure, esoteric topic without ever stopping to ask why. I assure you, I personally wish I'd asked why. Years later, I continue to enjoy learning. But since there are so many things to learn, I have the choice of learning many things superficially (the default when something new catches my interest daily), or really digging in and learning something in depth. At this stage in my life, with many things competing for my time and attention, learning something in depth requires considerably more motivation. And (for me) having an answer to "why?" helps me sustain that motivation.

no, don't do this. you have limited time focus what you learn just like everything else

Time is a limited resource. As much as I'd love to learn everything that I find interesting, I can't find the time to learn all these subjects. The criteria I use to decide when to learn something or not are not like geoka9's, but I still have to ask myself why.

geoka9 12y ago

What I meant is it would be impractical to pick one special topic of CS to study just because it happens to be a mode of the day. It's like deciding to study number theory ("because, you know, cryptography!") in isolation instead of following a sensible math curriculum ("I'm not particularly interested in math") and learning the discipline as it was meant to be learned. In short, I can't think of a "type system specialist" who is not a computer scientist. It sounds sort of like a "loop specialist" who can't program, or a "forehand specialist" who can't play tennis.

ufo 12y ago
Type theory specialists outside of CS usually fit under the banner of "Logician". Thats why they go under your radar :)

billsossoon 12y ago

Why does it hurt to ask why? Asking yourself why is also a means of learning. There are so many interesting things to learn, and they're all readily accessible to us. I find myself discovering a new fascinating subject I'd love to learn about each day, and by now the list of fascinating things has grown unmanageable. Asking "why?" can be a good means to to make sense of such a list. At a younger age, I was able to sustain great focus and effort on learning something without ever asking myself why. This approach helped me earn a doctoral degree on an obscure, esoteric topic without ever stopping to ask why. I assure you, I personally wish I'd asked why. Years later, I continue to enjoy learning. But since there are so many things to learn, I have the choice of learning many things superficially (the default when something new catches my interest daily), or really digging in and learning something in depth. At this stage in my life, with many things competing for my time and attention, learning something in depth requires considerably more motivation. And (for me) having an answer to "why?" helps me sustain that motivation.