[OT] destroy all software (was Programming language WATs)

[Chad J]

On 01/21/2012 06:35 PM, Era Scarecrow wrote:
>> So college wasn't all that bad to me. They still need to change the
>> funding model here in the states though.  That shit is broken as fuck.
>> For some people, namely those that are talented and have good
>> self-motivation, it may very well be worth their while to skip that
>> mess.  Probably doesn't work for physics though; it can be hard to do
>> experimental physics on your own ;)
>>
>> Also, the D newsgroup is probably better at teaching
>> programming than college.  Hmmmmm.  ;)
>
>   I have refused to go to college if I can't pay for it upfront and easily, which was impossible. Right now I have an option to go leaving me without a debt. There's courses I want to take to get me further into programming, yet the options are either difficult to impossible based on location, or what I really want isn't a specific offered course, without a lot of extra bloat to it likely.
>
>   Now I'm wondering what I should take. Should I even bother getting a CS degree? Or does someone think another option would be better?

Well, it seems you've read my story.  In my opinion, CS degrees don't 
teach you anything you can't learn on your own if you enjoy programming. 
  I think that contributing to open source projects and learning from 
the pleasures of other people's well-written code and the pains of other 
people's poorly written code will teach most of the important lessons. 
Maybe make a few throw-away games, just to play around, if you're into 
that kind of thing.

I liked my Physics degree.  A good physics degree is hard.  You won't 
have much spare time.  Some of the homework load can be downright 
futile: triage what you can.  But I think it can yield dividends: a good 
physics program can turn you into a badass.  Make sure you enjoy physics 
to some extent before you even consider this, though.  I imagine a lot 
of the other hard sciences may have similar implications.  These also 
have the advantage (?) that you can't learn them easily on your own, so 
you get some leverage by doing them in college.