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No CS Degree – Interviews with self-taught developers

nocsdegree.com

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Re: No CS Degree – Interviews with self-taught developers

#81

Post by [deleted] »

balabaster wrote: post #12
Pete-Codes wrote: post #2

I'm learning to code at the moment (Python this summer after learning the basics.) I kept talking to developers online to find out about their backgrounds as I don't have a CS degree. I figured as I was already asking people how they learned to code I might as well write up some proper interviews and share them with other people. This way I can scratch my own itch and stay motivated as well as sharing motivation with…

Thanks for this. I began programming when I was 8 on a Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K from books I liberated from my Mom back in 1983. I grew up as the internet was just becoming a thing, communicating with other would be developers and hackers on IRC channels. I still haven't lost the bug. I'd like to say my CS degree studies were useful, but they were hopelessly inadequate and so constrained and tedious as to kill any fu…

[deleted]

Re: No CS Degree – Interviews with self-taught developers

#82

Post by argd678 »

notus wrote: post #69

I'm confused how you accomplished anything without some type of looping abstraction. If you understand one of them most of the rest are fairly intuitive except looping with recursion. It just seems bizarre that you were working somewhere and being productive without knowing what a for loop was.

It sounds a bit like an ad for the site he mentions, I’m not sure how you can miss for loops.

Re: No CS Degree – Interviews with self-taught developers

#83

Post by jshowa3 »

harianus wrote: post #15
itsmemattchung wrote: post #5

I think its pretty well known that you can work as a successful developer without a CS degree. However , as someone who is currently working through a masters in CS (after working in software the last decade), I would say that CS courses (some, not all) provide invaluable foundation that would be difficult to obtain (of course you can self study CS). Sure — you don’t need to know how the OS works to write a web app t…

It seems like you’re saying it’s nice to know the layers of abstraction but it sounds like you don’t use it in real life. As a non CS degree developer I can’t really see anything that I’m missing because of not having the degree. I have a successful business, get hired for freelance jobs for a good salary, can build anything I want, ... Would love to know what one would get out of having the degree versus self study.

If you had a CS degree, you'd know you can't build anything you want cough halting problem cough. I'm surprised this got down voted since it's 100% true.

Re: No CS Degree – Interviews with self-taught developers

#85

Post by grahamel »

bluedino wrote: post #45
whatshisface wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The parent said they didn't know what for-in was, which implies they were using a language like C for their side projects which only has for (i=0;i<n;i++) loops.

You can google that in 2 seconds. A CS degree isn't going to help you there if you have not covered a language that uses iterators.

exactly - I had a similar learning curve (and no CS degree) where I could never remember what certain methods did but I knew exactly what to google for the answer

Re: No CS Degree – Interviews with self-taught developers

#86

Post by saagarjha »

illuminati1911 wrote: post #24
whatshisface wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can "peel back the layers of abstraction" without a CS degree, all it takes is time and (admittedly rare) dedication. Webservers, operating systems and books on theoretical CS are all out there, you just have to be interested.

This is absolutely true, however in reality (= in practice) very few non-CS degree devs _will_ reach the same level of knowledge. When you have to learn all that stuff to get your degree, then you just have to learn it. Period. Also people who are full time students have more time to spend on these topics, but when you are actually working 8h+ per day and your career is mostly around JS frameworks it becomes much har…

> When you have to learn all that stuff to get your degree, then you just have to learn it. Period.

Or you could just do the bare minimum that your class’s TA will let you get away with, which usually means not much at all…

Re: No CS Degree – Interviews with self-taught developers

#87

Post by zcrackerz »

jshowa3 wrote: post #76

I just find these odd. Does anyone struggle with this stuff? They just make it all look so easy. I for one struggle quite a bit with coding, design, theory, and other aspects. I just don't get how so many people think coding is as easy as "reading a book" or "doing a tutorial".

Well, you're literally writing step-by-step instructions that a computer will faithfully perform without deviation. Once you understand how a computer works and how to talk to it, it should be as easy as having a conversation.

I don't think this is easy, but when you've been doing it for years and years, it feels that way.

Re: No CS Degree – Interviews with self-taught developers

#90

Post by boblebricoleur »

Since these articles seem to be putting a cash value on the word "success" (or at the very least an instagram buzz value), I would point that IMHO, most of this success comes from people skill.

You can have a degree or not, even bad developpers can hop from one job to another, making more and more money in the process, given they're good enough to manipulate the recruiters/clients into hiring them. Making money does not mean your product is good,useful or well-designed. It means you're a good salesman.

Congratulations, you're making money by manipulating someone into giving you their money. Awesome ! Thanks for playing, please leave.

I guess the point of the website is to encourage people without a CS degree to learn programming. That's great. The disctinction beetween CS graduates and non-graduates seems to be very unfruitful IMHO so encouraging people to pick up a computer is cool.

What I would sugget is to stop promoting sensationnal stories like the kid that is making 15k$ a month. This is purely manipulative and dishonest. This kind of journalism is plain wrong. Even if the number are true (which I highly doubt) encouraging kids to drop out of high school to study CS on their own is wrong. Getting a degree is the best chance you have to becoming good at it. You can still be creative this way.

More, maybe encouraging good engineering (or craftmanship whatever you want to call it) instead of instagram buzz and money would make tomorrow's software a little less frustrating to use and a little less bloated.

I would love to see a story, just once, with the title "this guy made a beautiful piece of software, and it's awesome"

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