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Four Steps to Google, Without a Degree

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Re: Four Steps to Google, Without a Degree

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So long as you are willing to work way down the pay scale, sure. I am merely describing what I think is important in technical fields based on what I have seen around me over the years. I know a guy with enough college credit for four degrees. Never completed the requirements for any one degree. It was incredibly difficult for him to get a job as he got older. A degree would have opened a lot of doors. You go from ha…

> I know a guy with enough college credit for four degrees. It was incredibly difficult for him to get a job as he got older. There has been a lot of research gone into what makes someone financially successful and the current line of thinking seems to be that soft-skills, like stick-to-itiveness, are the primary factors. Someone who matches the description of your acquaintance doesn't exactly remind me of someone wh…

He held an excellent engineering job for twenty nine years while earning well in excess of $100K. Got laid off during the economic downturn. At >50 years of age no doors opened wherever a degree was required. He ended-up going back to school to finish one of the degrees. Regrettably he disappeared while swimming in the ocean and is presumed dead. Rung against the no-degree firewall really did a number on him. Some think he committed suicide. We'll never know.

Re: Four Steps to Google, Without a Degree

#142
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TopCoder problems quickly become pattern recognition and that becomes (brain) muscle memory. Knowing exact solutions to exact problems is not helpful.

it is helpful is most cases, but it has to be just a tool not a goal. a developer can reach the same thinking level just by working on its personal projects and by searching and reading about algorithms. However timed problems improve rapidity, which enterprise-oriented skill.

I agree, whole purpose of those learning is to improve thinking ability and problem solving skills, but it also intention of learner, which makes difference.

Re: Four Steps to Google, Without a Degree

#143
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you're not curious, you're just passive-aggressively pointing out that you don't think programming is engineering, but phrasing it in such a way as to make it sound like this is some universal truth that everyone accepts. Anyway, the answer is because it is engineering. Not in the capital "E" sense of engineering where you have some sort of official certification from some governmental or professional body that s…

ABET's predecessor described engineering like this: The creative application of scientific principles... Programming primarily applies logic and mathematics, which is why I have always considered programming/computer science to be more of an "applied mathematics" field, than engineering. Christ, computer science and mathematics are the only two fields I know of that care about graph theory. To my understanding, graph…

You can learn a lot of graph theory in your early undergraduate years. Only the most difficult problems are really graduate/post-graduate fodder.
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