(1) Practice writing code.
(2) Think about progamming.
(3) Read other people's code. (Find open-source projects of the type of program you are trying to write; try to wrap your brain around the codebase and see how they do things)
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Anonymous2010-05-10 20:05
>>1
you are aware that people who want to be really good usually learn this stuff in university arent you?
People who claim you can be a competent programmer without a relevant university education are wrong. People without a university education like to disagree, but that's only because they don't have the context to see just how little they know.
Community colleges, on the other hand, usually do more harm than good.
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Anonymous2010-05-12 15:10
>they don't have the context to see just how little they know.
Only University educated sheeple have the proper context.
>>21
You don't have the mathematical background to be a competent programmer in high school. Getting hello world to work in VB doesn't count as competency.
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Anonymous2010-05-12 17:47
>>22
But you learn that background in high school just as you can learn to get hello world to work in VB.
Also, I don't think our standards for competency are significantly different, yet I keep to my point.
>>23
Show me a single high schooler with a firm grasp on discrete mathematics. The field is too big and too advanced for them to tackle it by themselves in the time they have. Even four years of college will barely be adequate.
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Anonymous2010-05-12 17:53
>>24
I had a pretty firm grasp on discrete mathematics five years ago, but that doesn't include the whole field (as you seem to imply). You don't need to all known discrete mathematics to be a competent programmer.
>>25
If you think you had a firm grasp on discrete mathematics in high school, even just such discrete mathematics as you think relevant to programming, you still don't have a firm grasp on discrete mathematics.
>>18 People who claim you can be a competent programmer without a relevant university education are wrong. People without a university education like to disagree, but that's only because they don't have the context to see just how little they know.
Haha, oh.
Fuck school.
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Anonymous2010-05-13 2:14
People who claim you can be a competent programmer without a relevant university education are wrong.
Evidence?
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Anonymous2010-05-13 3:04
>>18
Two programmers at my work, one went though university, the other self taught. University taught guy gets fed up with employer, seeks other job while still working with us. The interviewers say "we're interested in hiring you, do you know anyone else who may also be looking?" University taught guy gives them self taught guy's number. Self taught guy gets offered the job, and declines. University guy doesn't get offered a job and is pissed.
I will say, however that the university taught guy did have a huge ego and the self taught guy was humble, so I suppose formal education has that going for it.
>>18
Proper context? Almost everything you learn at an university can be learned by reading the right books in one's free time. Some things do require hands-on experience, but that's not the only place to get it.
>>34
If that's true, it speaks very poorly of MIT. Then again, I have a lovely collection of emails from various.assholes@MIT.EDU that would do more damage.
Almost everything you learn at an university can be learned by reading the right books in one's free time. Some things do require hands-on experience, but that's not the only place to get it.
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Anonymous2010-05-13 20:25
>>37
This is not true. I only talk of SICP because it changed my life.