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"We don't make software engineers, we make computer scientists who can go into research". I don't think that part is ever obvious to people going into CS programs.

It wasn't to me. The frustration I felt for 4 years is beyond belief. I couldn't stand any longer in my fourth year. Stupid for dropping out at the 9th hour.

Now I wonder why companies aren't pushing for programming over the science.



The claim you always hear is that "people with a CS background have much stronger fundamentals".

I question that claim and believe that people perpetrating the meme have never actually hired and mentored software engineers themselves.

There's in my experience very little correlation between being academically great and being highly productive in an unstructured environment such as that of an early stage startup. In fact if you didn't go to school, and still managed to learn a ton about your craft and the underlying principles, I'm much more impressed.


Couldn't agree more, every time I'm asked to invert a binary tree in an interview I wonder exactly what kinds of problems this company is actually solving.

Like do they not have a general algorithm for this in a library?

Are they looking for more efficient ways of inverting trees?




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