Notes

Recovering from a Computer Science Education

I initially planned to name this "Undoing the damage of the Computer Science Education," but that's too extreme and link-baity. There is a real benefit to a computer science degree. First, you'll be able to easily get a good paying job. More importantly, you've gained the ability to create amazing and useful things. There's a drawback to this, too. It's easy to get involved in the technical and theoretical aspects that it's easy to forget the joy of it is to make useful and beautiful things. It was my experience at the very least and it took me a while to recover.



This is a brief list of things that helped me and could be helpful to you as well.



If it's directly related to the project you're working on, avoid technical forums. It's easy to get lost in debates about the validity of functional programming, whether Scheme is suitable for commercial applications, or just how terrible PHP is. The more you get involved in this, the more you lose your way.



Continue working on real projects in your area of interest. If you like designing games, write games. Let's talk about games If you are a photographer write a photo organizer or camera application. It's not necessary to believe that a photo organizer in Haskell is more important than one that solves a specific problem with photo organizers.



If you find yourself constantly in the process of slamming technology, it's worth taking the time to actually learn it and apply it. All the jokes and snide remarks aside, Perl is tremendously useful. The same goes for PHP, Java and C++. Who will win the one who has been slamming Java for 10 years or the developer of Minecraft who has just used the language and made tens of millions of dollars?



Don't become an advocate. This is the opposite of the previous item. If Linux, Android, or Scala could be useful in the development of your project, then that's great! The fact that you're using it is proof of its usefulness. It doesn't matter if everyone else uses it.



Be focused on the end result and not the "how" of your hobby. Woodworkers can turn into collectors of tools. Photographers can get obsessed with the spec comparison. Put aside all that and concentrate on the work you're creating.



Do something artistic. Learn to create pixel art or write songs, or short stories. These projects also have a shorter turnaround time than any other type of software.



Be a reader. There are many books on architecture, as well as books written by naturalists as well as popular and classic modern novels, and the majority of them do not have anything to do with computers or programming or science fiction.



permalink January 15, 2012



Before,



Follow-up to "A Programming Idiom You've Never heard Of"A Programming Idiom You've Never Heard Of2011 Retrospective User Experience Intrusions on iOS 5Photography as a Non-Technical Hobby archives



Twitter / mail



I'm James Hague, a recovering programmer who has been designing video games since the 1980s. Programming without being obsessed with Organizational and Programming Skills beat Algorithmic Wizardry are good starting points. The 2012 Retrospective is an excellent option for older material.


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