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Completing a computer science degree on Coursera

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Re: Completing a computer science degree on Coursera

#71

Post by Obscurity4340 »

angarg12 wrote: post #10

I got a Bachelor, Master, and PhD in Computer Science, with a total of 11 years of education. It's the biggest waste of time of my entire life. As I progress in my professional career I'm more convinced that pretty much everything in tech is on-the-job learning, and universities are little more than a social club. Nowadays you can learn everything you do at university and far more online and for free. Universities (e…

What do you think of something like this as an alrernative:

https://cs.ossu.dev/

(Free self-learning/paced/online CS curriculum)

Re: Completing a computer science degree on Coursera

#72

Post by noosphr »

angarg12 wrote: post #10

I got a Bachelor, Master, and PhD in Computer Science, with a total of 11 years of education. It's the biggest waste of time of my entire life. As I progress in my professional career I'm more convinced that pretty much everything in tech is on-the-job learning, and universities are little more than a social club. Nowadays you can learn everything you do at university and far more online and for free. Universities (e…

Computer science is to programming as physics is to plumbing.

If you want to be a plumber get an apprenticeship.

Re: Completing a computer science degree on Coursera

#74

Post by colechristensen »

aleph_minus_one wrote: post #38
alpinisme wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but writing detailed blog posts about the experience is usually a signal pointing toward the former group

> Yeah but writing detailed blog posts about the experience is usually a signal pointing toward the former group Writing detailed blog posts about the experience is rather usually a signal that the person is an annoying self-promoter. :-(

Same issue with the cert collector.

Some people with certs and some people with blogs are legit.

A lot of them are really eager to be seen and that's it.

Re: Completing a computer science degree on Coursera

#75

Post by Obscurity4340 »

HoldOnAMinute wrote: post #6

Pure computer science, you can teach it on a chalk board, without ever touching an electronic device.

Its technically true but it can take a long time for it to solidify for people and it would have taken way longer for me if I didnt have an IDE/compiler to experiment and experience it in real time and life

Re: Completing a computer science degree on Coursera

#76

Post by Vaslo »

I got the MSCS from U Illinois on there. It was more work than I expected even with one class a semester. I definitely learned a lot I could use in my current role.

I was in the inaugural class and it was pretty smooth other than one professor there who was an asshole and felt that online classes were beneath him. It felt like we got scraps from the table (then Covid happened and online was everywhere). Also, one prof quit just before the semester on a required class that seniors had to take and a replacement couldn’t be found in time. They offered us alternatives which weren’t really good class replacements.

Strongly recommend if your time and money is limited.

Re: Completing a computer science degree on Coursera

#77

Post by alemilos »

angarg12 wrote: post #10

I got a Bachelor, Master, and PhD in Computer Science, with a total of 11 years of education. It's the biggest waste of time of my entire life. As I progress in my professional career I'm more convinced that pretty much everything in tech is on-the-job learning, and universities are little more than a social club. Nowadays you can learn everything you do at university and far more online and for free. Universities (e…

I'm currently finishing my bachelor in CS in Rome, and have been feeling this often. I'm 24 and feel a bit lost. When I started 5 years ago I had never programmed (in my high school we studied latin for 5 years, and I don't remember a single word), and basically had to teach myself Python for an exam, delaying the others, (we had 4 exams per semester, and couldn't keep it up).

Then I had the opportunity to start working for a remote company writing 2 webapps in reactjs (no guidance on the code, I had to learn all by myself with courses, youtube etc. because I'm the only one writing the frontend)

In the meanwhile I stopped the university for a year to only realize later that I was missing my academic education. After all, having a guidance on what to study makes you feel safer, the world is so complex and full of different things, that the university gives you the illusion of learning the "right" and "indespensable" thing. Trust our path, they say.

But now I'm here again, 1 exam left (on ancient Artificial Intelligence, based on Norvig's book), and I don't really know what to do - Artificial Intelligence Master ? - Computer Science Master ? - Sabbatical Year to learn by following rabbit holes, hoping to find my real self ?

In the meanwhile I'll probably see the AI take my job.

The great future I once imagined seems so unreachable now, I'm demoralized. I wanted to create cool and hard things, but I find myself chatting with LLMs nowadays, and I think, is this worth?

(How I migrated my tech career into a plumber career - coming soon.)

Re: Completing a computer science degree on Coursera

#78

Post by dahart »

apsurd wrote: post #60
bonoboTP wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding "university isn't worth it, you can just learn by doing, none of this theory matters in practice", I've usually heard this from people who weren't able to pass the math courses (or even the programming courses), so it seemed more like sour grapes. I have to admit though that they were right, in that they were indeed able to make a career at some multinational companies even after barely getting through a ba…

the distinction is specific to the economic value calculation. it’d be disingenuous to assume the conversation is about anything other than the economic trade off. That said, wholly agree that if school was about learning, it’s great for advancing and curating an environment for learning as its own value. fwiw in high school, authority figures justified college as a way to counteract the failure scenario of dead-end…

> it’d be disingenuous to assume the conversation is about anything other that the economic trade off.

To me it seems hollow and sad to think about higher education purely in job and money terms, but maybe I’m weird. I studied what I wanted to learn about, and was naïve about any economic trade offs. There were a few companies I thought were cool and dreamt about working for, and at some level I knew it’d take a degree to get in, but in my book school was quite valuable beyond the jobs I’ve had, in many non-financial ways.

> you’re basically telling them their economic value is shit before they are even grown. I don’t believe in that.

Maybe I didn’t understand, but I can’t quite reconcile your suggestion to only look at college as an economic trade off, with not believing in recommending college due to your pessimistic interpretation of the message. It’s a fact that in the US, people with 4-year degrees earn more than people without, statistically speaking. (And the factor is a lot bigger than I thought.) People with advanced degrees statistically earn a considerable amount more than people with 4-year degrees. If you want to look at this as an economic trade off, it seems like there’s only one recommendation that makes any sense, no? Like, based on the numbers and my own experience, it doesn’t feel like going to school has particularly strong negatives that offset the positives. (BTW I went to a state school, and borrowed money to pay tuition.)

Re: Completing a computer science degree on Coursera

#79

Post by fn-mote »

angarg12 wrote: post #10

I got a Bachelor, Master, and PhD in Computer Science, with a total of 11 years of education. It's the biggest waste of time of my entire life. As I progress in my professional career I'm more convinced that pretty much everything in tech is on-the-job learning, and universities are little more than a social club. Nowadays you can learn everything you do at university and far more online and for free. Universities (e…

If you write a PhD and feel like it was a waste, too bad. I think if you had approached it differently, you would have gotten something else out of it. By that point you’re supposed to be more responsible for your own learning.

No comment on the advisability of the degrees.

Re: Completing a computer science degree on Coursera

#80

Post by fn-mote »

alemilos wrote: post #77
angarg12 wrote: post #10

I got a Bachelor, Master, and PhD in Computer Science, with a total of 11 years of education. It's the biggest waste of time of my entire life. As I progress in my professional career I'm more convinced that pretty much everything in tech is on-the-job learning, and universities are little more than a social club. Nowadays you can learn everything you do at university and far more online and for free. Universities (e…

I'm currently finishing my bachelor in CS in Rome, and have been feeling this often. I'm 24 and feel a bit lost. When I started 5 years ago I had never programmed (in my high school we studied latin for 5 years, and I don't remember a single word), and basically had to teach myself Python for an exam, delaying the others, (we had 4 exams per semester, and couldn't keep it up). Then I had the opportunity to start work…

Advice: look for a job, then use what you learn you need in the job to motivate your next studying.
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