Eric S. Raymond - The Curse of the Gifted (2000)
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Re: Eric S. Raymond - The Curse of the Gifted (2000)
#2I'm so very lucky that a) I just happened to major in math and CS, not just CS and b) my 'giftedness' was only enough through calc 1 in the math program. My foreign language and gen eds were easy, and the CS program didn't expect much of us, but I had to actually try in the higher-level applied math classes. Without that, I'd have been in for a rude awakening when it came time to work for real, and it would have cost me much more than re-taking calc 2 did.
Re: Eric S. Raymond - The Curse of the Gifted (2000)
#3I'm so very lucky that a) I just happened to major in math and CS, not just CS and b) my 'giftedness' was only enough through calc 1 in the math program. My foreign language and gen eds were easy, and the CS program didn't expect much of us, but I had to actually try in the higher-level applied math classes. Without that, I'd have been in for a rude awakening when it came time to work for real, and it would have cost…
Similar for me. School was easy, I only learned to really work for something at the university.
Re: Eric S. Raymond - The Curse of the Gifted (2000)
#4This is a very helpful post. How often do we run into people who are headstrong, and probably even right when we disagree with them, but who ultimately will benefit from a slightly more humble and careful way of working.
Clean coding is as much about the social skill of communicating in code as about the raw ability to hold the problem in your own head.
Re: Eric S. Raymond - The Curse of the Gifted (2000)
#5Just the dose of practicality that my senior year at university needed. Makes me feel I can actually accomplish something with the right mix of communication, tools and team.
Re: Eric S. Raymond - The Curse of the Gifted (2000)
#6[deleted]
Re: Eric S. Raymond - The Curse of the Gifted (2000)
#7Yeah, that makes a lot of sense... I never ever studied anything before sophomore year of college. And then when faced with serious large-scale programming problems, and 300 level math, I realized I don't know how to study. It was definitely a struggle, but I'm glad it happened to me early, and not when I entered a "real world".
Re: Eric S. Raymond - The Curse of the Gifted (2000)
#8ESR often comes across as unbearably pompous and self-important, but here he strikes a very constructive posture of hard-earned humility and even tough love.
Re: Eric S. Raymond - The Curse of the Gifted (2000)
#9Here is the post in the context of the original thread http://lkml.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0008.2/0240.h.... There doesn't seem to be a reply from Linus.
Re: Eric S. Raymond - The Curse of the Gifted (2000)
#10Yeah, that makes a lot of sense... I never ever studied anything before sophomore year of college. And then when faced with serious large-scale programming problems, and 300 level math, I realized I don't know how to study. It was definitely a struggle, but I'm glad it happened to me early, and not when I entered a "real world".
Depending on your career path, it is unlikely you would have ever encountered that math in the 'real world'.