Academia Bullshit

When going into a project, you may think "I know how to do this". Unless you've done it before, you only have an idea on how to do it. The difference between "I know this" and "I have an idea how to do this" can be a combination of several hours and several headaches.

There's this notion that's infected computer science academia that really needs to rubbed out with some alcohol swabs. You take a data structures class in java and they have the audacity to spout "it's the same no matter what language you're doing it in". No. It. Bloody. Isn't.

Remember, you're dealing with computers here. These are the same devices that will refuse to compile code over a typo. The most insignificant thing can stop a program from working, including quirks specific to the language or operating system your working on.

The thing is, a compiler doesn't accept theory to make programs, it accepts code and it will throw a fit over the most trivial mistake. This is why software engineers aren't afraid of the robot apocalypse. There's no reason to be scared of something that can be taken down with a misplaced semicolon.

Theory is important without a doubt but unlike a professor my goal isn't to teach theory (or earn tenure so I can half-ass my way to retirement). I have to get software out the door and the difference between a theoretical understanding and a practical one is many sleepless nights in front of a computer.

You can design/implement/test part A and then you can design/implement/test part B and everything will seem perfect until you realize they need to be refactored to work together. You then come up with a hack to try to squish them together because you're short on time (and you will always be short on time), and then you have create another hack to make with something else, and then it just snowballs. With every person added to your development team is another chance for there to be a design conflict.

Design is one of the things that legitimately can't be taught to any meaningful degree in lecture. You develop a knack for design through experience, trial and error, and having to go through several plates of spaghetti code.

Another thing you have to remember is that when you're working for a game company, you're working for a game company. They're here to make money and you're going to have to deal with business people. One branch you'll have to deal with is marketing and the voodoo that they do. They get a bad rap which is understandable after fiascos like New Coke, but they also brought us Betty Crocker Cake Mix (stay with me here). In the 1950s, Betty Crocker Cake Mix was well reviewed but it was just sitting on the shelves. A marketing firm was hired to find out how to get the cake mix to move. What they found out is that housewives felt guilty about not putting effort into their meals. The marketing firm remedied this problem by instructing consumers to add an egg and the cake mix is still being sold today. You can only hope they can work that sort of magic on your game because there isn't much demand for a game developer who makes games that don't sell.

The point is you're going to have to deal with people in the game development industry who don't know what a for loop is. All these people speak different languages and it's important that you know how to speak their languages.

That sort of thinking isn't going to fly, even if you're that kid that never shows up to class and gets As on everything. The purpose of college (other than to drown you in debt) is to give you a foundation. Foundations are important but not enough. Not even close. Many of the skills that got me through publishing an app I learned through augmenting what I learned in class with independent study.

You're a fucking low IQ mongrel, get out of here.

>>2

Kodak toilet scrubber, is that you? What happened to Kodak Gallery? How hard is the life of typical loser?

>>1
The egg thing reminds me of lawyers for some resaon.

>>1
Reading this made me thankful I'm not a primary school english teacher.

>>5
Watch your privilege, male anglophone.

>>5
I am thankful of that every day. Primary eigo is a carefully crafted collection of lies just to get kids to capitalize their sentences, put periods at the end and hopefully not spam commas all over the damngod place.

i am, thankful, of that, every, day, primary eigo is, a carefully crafted, collection of lies, just to get kids to capitalize their sentences, put periods at, the end, and, hopefully not spam commas all over, the damngod place

ə əm, þənkfəl, əf þət, əvəry, dəy, prəməry əəgə əſ, ə cərəfəlly crəftəd, cəlləctəən əf ləəſ, jəſt tə gət kədſ tə cəpətələzə þəər ſəntəncəſ, pət pərəədſ ət, þə ənd, ənd, həpəfəlly nət ſpəm cəmməſ əll əvər, þə dəmngəd pləcə

>>1

publishing an app

nobody cares about your useless overpriced gadgets

go do something useful for the world.

solve problems.

there is already too much spam, really too much spam.

here's this notion that's infected computer science academia that really needs to rubbed out with some alcohol swabs. You take a data structures class in java and they have the audacity to spout "it's the same no matter what language you're doing it in". No. It. Bloody. Isn't.

the syntax differs from language-to-language but the data structures, even though their implementation varies in its technical details, are the same.

a tree is a tree is a tree.

there are thousands of languages. thousands of libraries. constant change. but a tree is a motherfucking tree, whether it be in Python or in Java or in C or in Lisp. once you know what a tree is, you can make one in whatever language you like.

this idea that it's all about knowing by heart the syntax of whatever language is currently popular is utter and total bullshit, perpetuated by mediocre people who can't see beyond the superficial technical aspects of computing. unfortuantely, it is a quite widespread idea.

/prog/ needn't be infected by this mediocrity.

there is already the big sites like reddit for that.

The point is you're going to have to deal with people in the game development industry who don't know what a for loop is.

again, please go do something useful for the world. no "apps". no "video games".

Let me retort to your overall argument with a paraphrase from an eloquent CS professor:

Once you learned the big ideas [...] learning another programming language isn't a big deal; it's a chore for a weekend. I tell my students, "the language in which you'll spend most of your working life hasn't been invented yet, so we can't teach it to you. Instead we have to give you the skills you need to learn new languages as they appear."

(http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~bh/sicp.html)

Syntactical details are just that, details.

If you think they're a big deal then you're retarded.

>>10

do something useful for the world. no "apps". no "video games".

Please don't underestimate the value of entertainment. It wont make you happy if all these niggers, playing their xboxes, get out of their hood to kill you and rape your wife. As said wise Romans, "panem et circenses".

>>11
Aside from the racism, I entirely agree with you!

>>1
Programming is a craft just like any other craft. Computer programming classes teach programming concepts and instruct students to complete exercises. Software design skills can be taught and trained but it's up to the individual to use those tools creatively to achieve solutions for their problem.

>>12

racism

That is not racism, but a self-preservation instinct. Even liberal democrats agree that niggers are dangerous and could be used to start an uprising: China and Russia wont miss a chance to turn American into the next Rhodesia.

http://www.chuckhawks.com/liberals_hate_guns.htm
Despite their protestations to the contrary, much of the push for gun control comes from liberal Democrats who want to keep guns out of the hands of black people. Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington D.C. and New York City are places with large minority populations and very restrictive gun laws.

Also, the people who push for gun control come from cushy places where minorities are not welcome (except as servants). How many working class African-Americans hang out in places like Brentwood, California or Beacon Hill and Hyannis, Massachusetts? People who do not want minorities to have guns like gun control.

>>14
Most blacks were awakened to this phenomena in the 60's. Ever wonder why post-modernism/post-structuralism is so wide spread in universities now-a-days with the support of the establishment, and orthodox Marxism has essentially disappeared? The bourgeoisie liberals created identity politics to distract the working class from the real class struggle.

Marxist theory of dialectical materialism is a very important aspect to Black Panther belief and provided the framework for scientific socialism. Although dialectical materialism was very important, this source claims that Mao Tse-Tung;s of The People’s Republic of China was even more influential. As mentioned before, the party promoted the use of unconcealed weapons in black communities to protect them from police brutality. The party funded this idea by the sale of Mao’s “little red book” to Berkeley students. Mao was so important to the Black Panthers because he had a different take on Marxism-Leninism where he applied it to Chinese peasants. Huey and Seale felt that there was a close relationship and similarities between the Chinese peasants and the oppression of blacks in America and used Mao’s “little black book” basically as a guideline for social revolution.

It is very difficult for the labouring people, who have been deceived and intimidated by the reactionary ruling classes for thousands of years, to awaken to the importance of having guns in their own hands. Now that Japanese imperialist oppression and the nation-wide resistance to it have pushed our labouring people into the arena of war, Communists should prove themselves the most politically conscious leaders in this war. Every Communist must grasp the truth, "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun." Our principle is that the Party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the Party. Yet, having guns, we can create Party organizations, as witness the powerful Party organizations which the Eighth Route Army has created in northern China. We can also create cadres, create schools, create culture, create mass movements. Everything in Yenan has been created by having guns. All things grow out of the barrel of a gun. According to the Marxist theory of the state, the army is the chief component of state power. Whoever wants to seize and retain state power must have a strong army. Some people ridicule us as advocates of the "omnipotence of war". Yes, we are advocates of the omnipotence of revolutionary war; that is good, not bad, it is Marxist. The guns of the Russian Communist Party created socialism. We shall create a democratic republic. Experience in the class struggle in the era of imperialism teaches us that it is only by the power of the gun that the working class and the labouring masses can defeat the armed bourgeoisie and landlords; in this sense we may say that only with guns can the whole world be transformed.

>>1,6
Fuck off, fat swedish lady with bad skin poorly hidden by makeup and an awkwardness caused by wearing uncomfortable clothing in an autistically clueless attempt to look good. Fucking swedish nigger.

>>14
Humans don't have instincts you fucking faggot pseudo-intellectual. Still no hard evidence fir this ``self-preservation'' bullshit.

>>11
Fuck off pseudo-intellectual. Fuck off to your niggers and video games you bad taste loser.