Let Go, Standard Library From Community

[Walter Bright]

Stephen Waits wrote:
> Basically, seems like the students aren't learning much about the 
> machine any more.  Were they ever?  Or were us "old-timers" (I'm 35, not 
> quite an old timer, but whatever) just so excited about the whole thing 
> that we all spent way too much time learning stuff on our own?  (I also 
> quit college so I could learn more)

A guy in my dorm in college built a CPU board out of random logic (NAND, 
NOR gates) just for fun. Those are the kind of guys you want to hire!

I think it was Niven who wrote that a real scientist was one who'd 
fearlessly peer through the gates of hell if he thought he could learn 
something.

It isn't hard to tell the real engineers from the "just a job" folks in 
a job interview. The real engineers:

1) did weird projects in their spare time, just for fun, not for credit

2) regard getting a degree as incidental, and wind up leaving it 
forgotten in the bottom of a drawer

3) took the hard classes that weren't required

4) didn't duck the calculus classes

5) can enthusiastically describe their projects

6) can tell you how bright an LED can glow if you file down the housing 
a bit and stick it in liquid nitrogen

The charlatans:

1) did nothing that wasn't required

2) generally complain that their hard work goes unrecognized

3) are much more interested in the salary & benefits rather than what 
the work is

4) have difficulty describing just what their last project was and what 
their contribution to it was

5) complain about outsourcing or foreigners taking their jobs

6) never made beersicles from pouring beer into liquid nitrogen