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The University Is Like a CD in the Streaming Age

theatlantic.com

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Re: The University Is Like a CD in the Streaming Age

#91

Post by _curious_ »

turbinerneiter wrote: post #83

Ya'll use University wrong. The classes, etc. ... whatever! During my time at Uni, I: * designed a demonstrator car frame to show off a bunch of new manufacturing techniques, which was actually built in the end * was part of a team who tested a new type of fiber optical vibration sensor on a sounding rocket * worked with a PhD student on developing a sensor to measure water flow through a tank to validate his simulat…

How could the essence of this comment been captured and communicated without running the risk of coming off as braggadocios?

Re: The University Is Like a CD in the Streaming Age

#92

Post by tams »

_curious_ wrote: post #91
turbinerneiter wrote: post #83

Ya'll use University wrong. The classes, etc. ... whatever! During my time at Uni, I: * designed a demonstrator car frame to show off a bunch of new manufacturing techniques, which was actually built in the end * was part of a team who tested a new type of fiber optical vibration sensor on a sounding rocket * worked with a PhD student on developing a sensor to measure water flow through a tank to validate his simulat…

How could the essence of this comment been captured and communicated without running the risk of coming off as braggadocios?

It's fine as it is.

Re: The University Is Like a CD in the Streaming Age

#93

Post by FrobozzElectric »

dougmwne wrote: post #51
stinkytaco wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've hired people, but wouldn't say I have a great deal of experiencing in the area, so here's an honest question for you: do candidates with a college education perform better at their jobs? In my (limited) experience the answer is definitely yes. Not only do they have more exposure to the concepts we need them to understand (if not necessarily the specific tools), we have just had better luck with them as employees…

I never shied away from interviewing a person without a degree, and honestly tried to never count that as a mark against a person since making it in the professional world without a degree is a challenge that I think shows a certain character. A lot of doors are just closed by default and that can be tough on a person's sense of self-worth. That said, I think the degree holders were better candidates usually, but I s…

> have a healthy respect for authority, and can delay gratification in the extreme.

What does these qualities have to do with being a effective software developer?

> The degree acts to filter out people who are too independent to fit well within a hierarchy.

Wouldn't people that fall into the category of "free-thinkers" make for better engineers — or at least engineers that are more capable at creating novel solutions to hard problems?

Re: The University Is Like a CD in the Streaming Age

#94

Post by Scarblac »

turbinerneiter wrote: post #83

Ya'll use University wrong. The classes, etc. ... whatever! During my time at Uni, I: * designed a demonstrator car frame to show off a bunch of new manufacturing techniques, which was actually built in the end * was part of a team who tested a new type of fiber optical vibration sensor on a sounding rocket * worked with a PhD student on developing a sensor to measure water flow through a tank to validate his simulat…

Which university was that?

Re: The University Is Like a CD in the Streaming Age

#95

Post by UK-Al05 »

dougmwne wrote: post #61
beojan wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> whether the typical CS curriculum helps a modern software engineer at all The purpose of a computer science curriculum isn't to train a software engineer, it's to train a computer scientist.

Yes, I absolutely agree, which is why the popularity of the degree is so utterly curious. Companies do not need many computer scientists and the students largely want high paying jobs, not to continue in academia pushing the bounds of theory.

Most degrees in most subjects go in-depth on subjects they probably won't ever use in bog-standard industry role.

Do I regret it? No, it was fun, interesting and it's cool when this hidden knowledge does come up at work.

Re: The University Is Like a CD in the Streaming Age

#96

Post by pm90 »

0d9eooo wrote: post #46
dougmwne wrote: post #16

I was having another one of those moments yesterday where I was questioning the value of higher education while reading a HN thread about teaching yourself CS. There was a healthy debate about whether the typical CS curriculum helps a modern software engineer at all. Some thought the degree was stuck back in the 70's. Others thought there was value, but had trouble articulating it. It seems that when the information…

As a former tenured professor I've been watching all of this with a bit of empathy, anxiety, concern, and schaudenfreude. Many of my best friends and colleagues are at the university and it still forms a huge part of my life. In speaking with many students and colleagues, one thing has struck me, which is that many of the current undergrads are enrolled because they want to get away from home. They want some true tra…

Thanks for this comment! Universities are where the majority of scientific research is conducted today, and I hope that won’t go away anytime soon (severely restricting immigration and funding might change that). Many of the Professors I worked with considered teaching to be an obligation; they would rather spend their time on research (doesn’t mean they don’t teach well, some do, others don’t). As long as we continue to find research Universities themselves won’t be going anywhere.

Re: The University Is Like a CD in the Streaming Age

#97

Post by celliopia »

chadlavi wrote: post #76
bcgraham wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People are pretty susceptible to passionate speech by charismatic figures; much more susceptible, in fact, than they are to facts. This just seems like an opportunity for racists to win hearts and minds. The unstated assumption of this premise is that some people (never us, always others) cannot be trusted to make good decisions, and thus need to have their decisions made for them, for their own good. It advocates…

Saying it's a bad idea to invite racists to speak publicly about their racist ideologies on university campuses is human subjugation? ok pal.

The OP was endorsing debates of ideas, not one-sided passionate speeches. In fact the example of a Lincoln-Douglas format was suggested.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln%E2%80%93Douglas_debate...

Re: The University Is Like a CD in the Streaming Age

#98

Post by brighton36 »

GaryNumanVevo wrote: post #80
pm90 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Racism appears in many forms, identifying that is not as straightforward as it might appear to be. Debating Racism would probably include many of the ways in which racist behaviors manifest themselves, which isn’t clear from the get go. Eg we now know that certain policies such as redlining, war on drugs and harsher criminal sentences affected minority communities disproportionately. Were these policies racist? The c…

Those are great topics of research. But platforming racists as just people with different ideas is a false equivalency.

What's a racist, and who decides?

Re: The University Is Like a CD in the Streaming Age

#99

Post by GaryNumanVevo »

mikece wrote: post #59
GaryNumanVevo wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The “debate” on racism was lost a long time ago. I would hope it’s well understood it’s a net negative for society. I don’t think debating it over and over again as if there’s merit to racist ideas is remotely a good idea. It’s like letting the flat earthers continue to teach science classes even though we know the earth is round.

"having a debate" != "teaching a class" > The "debate" on racism was lost a long time ago. When is the last time you asked someone who is a strident racist to explain their ideas in the form of a full essay or 30 minute presentation? Have you ever seen this done without the implicit or explicit assertion that the target of their animus is a lesser human or perhaps not human at all? Anyone with two brain cells to rub…

Racism is anti-logic. Full stop. It's an ideology that reinforces itself only through the continued rejection of information. Racism is used extensively to study the backfire effect in psychology.

The only way for such an absurd system of beliefs to exist is to either rely exclusively on morally bankrupt individuals, or to heavily lean on confirmation bias and reject any anti-racist ideas.

Re: The University Is Like a CD in the Streaming Age

#100

Post by throwlogon »

turbinerneiter wrote: post #83

Ya'll use University wrong. The classes, etc. ... whatever! During my time at Uni, I: * designed a demonstrator car frame to show off a bunch of new manufacturing techniques, which was actually built in the end * was part of a team who tested a new type of fiber optical vibration sensor on a sounding rocket * worked with a PhD student on developing a sensor to measure water flow through a tank to validate his simulat…

For students who arrive at a university without already knowing these opportunities exist, it's not always apparent that they do exist and may be available to them.
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