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All the Perl that's Practical to Extract and Report

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Two Types of Programmer 3 Comments More | Login | Reply /

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  • Agreed. The smartest programmers I've worked with have been physics majors, the most interesting probably Liberal Arts or "other" types. Don't waste your time studying Computer Science if you just (think that you) want to do Programming. There are much more efficient ways to become a decent programmer, which are compatible with pursuing other interests and seeing more of the world.

    • Re:Agreed (Score:1)

      by bluto (225) on 2007.09.04 10:25 (#57420)
      I'll admit, I've worked with one guy with a BSCS+MSCS that didn't know how to program his way out of a wet paper bag, but you are absolutely wrong saying that getting a CS degree is a waste of time if you just want to program.

      I started teaching myself when I was a young teenager, and all I've wanted to do since then is program. For a while I seriously thought about going into other fields (strangely, physics was one of them), but I drank the cool-aid and chose CS. I learned a huge amount of practical programming with both my degrees (MSCS almost 2 decades later) from people with expertise that I couldn't pick up on my own. Sure, there's a fair amount of stuff you won't use, or at least think you won't. During my MSCS, I had the opportunity to learn from two guys that were the best in their field. I wouldn't trade that experience for a degree in any other field or some "more efficient" way of becoming a good programmer.

      • I think there's a huge and crucial difference between "wanting to program" (i.e. to finance other pursuits) and "loving to program" (i.e. what you seem to express). You probably know far more about programming than you need to in order to get the job done.

        Anyways, here [stanford.edu] is a sample undergrad curriculum. I'd say about half of it could be skipped without significant loss in programming ability: about half of the math requirements (e.g. calculus), the physics, almost all the hardware/EE, and some of the ran

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