That's a good point. I like the fundamentals and really digging in, and for my friends who don't I ask why learn less about the fundamentals of what you're doing!? Those same friends seriously questioned their life choices during the theory/core classes. They later found their calling when they had a chance to explore things like web dev or mobile dev and they're happy now.
You can definitely tell that a number of people are in it without necessarily being dedicated to cs. A bunch of people want our cs program to basically be a vocational school, and in some ways it kind of already is. We learn a trade that we can practice even while students, and people pay us students good money at internships! That's a pretty special opportunity. But the amount of disdain the average student here has for a topic like operating systems is kind of surprising to me.
I could be wrong, but as a casual observer who isn't yet in the workforce it seems to me that the people who put up with the rigor of the more difficult and less sexy topics (e.g. a solid understanding in algorithms à la CLRS) are not only just as well compensated as those who prefer to focus on what they think are marketable skills that industry is looking for, but they grow faster and further. These sorts of people (again, in my casual observer's eye) don't get pigeon-holed into a technology stack, but can easily jump into new topics if they think they're sufficiently interesting.
It's at least true for my friends in compsci who I have the most respect for as programmers. They seem like they can do anything!
Thank you for sharing! I've been looking for a well structured course to help me navigate through SICP.
It's kind of funny how at my university (one of the better public unis in the world, or so they say), there is no rigorous introduction to computer science. Sure, we have our architecture, and our data structures, OS, and algorithms, and even a "here's how to Java" introductory course. Yet there is no "This is the way to think like a computer scientist and how to understand as a computer scientist would" class.
The result? You can clearly tell there are a lot of people in the cs program who just sort of go by and learn all these periphery (but still important!) topics without ever touching the core principles. I've even seen seniors who are just clueless! I guess the idea is they're meant to figure it out for themselves through a eureka moment? That doesn't seem like a sound structure to me. I'm realizing that I, myself, fall into the lacking-understanding camp and I'm doing my damn best to rectify that. When I get my degree I want to be able to say I'm a computer scientist, and I want those words mean something. I'm hoping that SICP will truly help me understand the core principles.
I've recently given up a big temptation/distractor in my life. I packed up my gaming desktop and gave it away, and now I just use my laptop which I long ago set aside as school-only. This thing couldn't even play games if I wanted to, but it CAN ssh and compile code.
I mean, after 9.5 years of playing DotA, what's the point? My grades have improved and I'm overall happier as I invest more time learning skills that I truly want to gain, all while traveling lighter.
I think I hit a breaking point when I was living in my last apartment. I had too much junk around that I didn't want, need, or use. And because there was enough of it, I didn't have a real place for anything and didn't feel like cleaning it. My apartment wasn't dirty, but it was perennially untidy. I did not like that at all.