Dawn of the Geeks

It’s insufficient. A lot of people go through the education system (including university) and think that’s enough. Or they read lots of books and think that’s enough. I don’t know how to code because I read a lot of books. I know how to code because I code. If I want to learn something I come up with a project and learn it. I wanted to learn software rendering so I came up with various projects to learn it and continue to do so. Books and education can give you ideas of what to learn but unless you invent your own projects, you’ll never learn it on a level sufficient to get a job. You can’t just do the given exercises or whatnot and pass the given tests.

This really applies to all fields. You can’t be a doctor simply because you read medical books. You have to apply that knowledge. Knowledge is the knowing on things. Wisdom is being able to apply knowledge in the real world. What happens is that many students only gain knowledge from their education and fail to aquire any wisdom. If this is the case, you’ve wasted a lot of time and money. This is why many degrees require real world experience before you graduate. I can’t enter the professional program for teaching until I get a couple letters of recommendation indicating my ability in the area.

The only thing required to get a programming degree was a sufficient GPA. I saw how pointless the program was and didn’t really care so I didn’t get the GPA and just switched majors. Meanwhile I work as a programmer for a growing company. I’d rather teach. So that’s what I’m looking to do now. One of the things that motivated me was people just graduating with a programming degree and then asking how to make Tetris. It’s sad to see that. It’s not their fault they wasted tens of thousands of dollars. They just didn’t know any better and the teachers failed to tell them they needed to get most of their education outside the classroom.

My goal as a teacher is not only to teach them in the classroom but also inform them what they need to know to succeed in the real world; namely that no matter what field they choose, they need to start gaining experience in that field as a hobby now and through out their life. People that I work with have been working in the field for a long time and still have pet projects to enhance their abilities. Your career has to be your life or you won’t succeed.