I have the first edition of K&R with DMR’s autograph. I should probably try to get BWK’s too, before it is too late.
As a side note, I still use awk most of the days. And, of course, we all use UTF-8, invented by Ken.
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Fun fact: One major reason that the UNIX operating system was created was because its creators really liked playing a game called Space Travel on a machine that Bell Labs owned at the time.
But that machine was taken away, and in order to keep playing that game on the remaining machines that Bell Labs owned, they first needed to create an operating system that could actually run the game. The operating system they created was UNIX.
Yep, the modern computing industry was created because some geeks wanted to play games.
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As I was reading through the course syllabus in the link I posted, I was amused to note, and remember my son telling me, that in many upper level CS classes, you are discouraged from opening your laptop. Some of the faculty at Princeton (and I am sure elsewhere as well) believe that CS and Computers have not much to do with each other. In fact Tarjan was known to have commented that the worst thing that happened to CS is the invention of computers.
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The modern day equivalent of golf in the tech industry is video games. If you don’t play video games, you don’t fit in. I remember calling my son at 6pm one day during his internship and found that he was still at work. I was worried that they were working him to the bone. He said he was playing Mario Kart with his friend’s boss.
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I worked in the tech industry (and CS research) all my life. I have never played video games. I wouldn’t play golf either, both are extremely boring.
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I am speaking of the current generation.
We should probably get back on topic. The facts are that the most influential people in the so-hot-right-now CS field that created the whole industry were doing it because it was their passion.
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Luck is an interesting thing. I agree there has to be a component of it but I also think you “make your own luck” which falls into the hard work, persistence category.
As an example, D is interested in lots of aspects of theater / performing including writing and creating original material. One of the heads of her program learned of this interest and suggested she “work” backstage at this improv show he produces. She did and met some very famous people. They liked her and she has had follow up discussions with some influential people, including one that wants to mentor her. Who knows if it will lead to anything but she will pursue that. You can call all of this luck or you can say she is putting herself out there and benefiting from opportunities she created.
It takes a total combination of talent, hard work, resiliency, persistence, timing, luck. I think once a certain level of talent is achieved (of course always strive for more), the other components have to really kick in.
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This is what I gleaned from the thread and what makes sense to me.
- Encourage passion but educate kids on what it takes to self support (at whatever level).
- If no passion, then encourage kids to pursue what they are good at.
- Encourage flexibility because circumstances can change.
- What a liberal arts major is means different things at different institutions, so can’t generalize.
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I learned that it’s a good thing my daughter did not major in CS (she thought about it for a second) because evidently she would not fit in. She has no interest in video games.
I learned to be grateful that she fits in beautifully in the world of biology, and wherever it takes her is fine.
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I don’t know why people keep repeating these cliches about video games and CS. My older son is a recent (this year) graduate with CS degree. He rarely plays video games. Yes, he has CS friends that “waste their time” (his words) with games, but he prefers skating, snowboarding, bar hopping etc.
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Honestly I don’t know anything about CS and video games. Thank you for clarifying what was mentioned earlier!
Video gaming really has little to do with CS, even though some colleges have video game design as one of their “specialties” or tracks in CS. Computer Science is, after all, a science about using computing technologies to solve problems. Many students, of course, chose Computer Science because of the word “Computer”, and that’s what is driving the current popularity of the major. If they don’t treat it as a science, many of them will likely be disappointed at some point in their careers, because it may seem at the moment there’s infinite demand for people who can program computers, that demand won’t last forever.
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You are right of course. This is the same way that people think that the profession of Finance has something to do with golf. I recently had a friend advocating hard to me that we should have all our kids learn golf, as otherwise they wouldn’t fit into the local rich people network. So I gave him this video game spiel. It may just be a young person thing, as opposed to a tech young person thing, but it is somewhat common for (male?) kids to connect on this theme than on other themes. There are regional variations of course. I heard hiking is a thing in Seattle tech circles etc. Presumably bar hopping in NYC, or watching football in towns with a well known food ball team.
You never know - is this luck or not? We know someone that went to a “non target” school in the dark ages and got a break because of golf. He was toiling away at a corporate job, and managed to get an interview at a bulge bracket place as a favor to a relative. Always claims that the thing that piqued their interest was the golf on his CV.
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I am sure this was the case in the dark ages. That’s why you are calling them dark :-). Things may still work this way in BB firms. That is why they are slowly becoming obsolete. At least on the trading side, you don’t get hired even at a large BB unless you are seriously STEM these days. Implicitly STEM and golf I think are only lightly correlated, if at all – certainly at a young age.
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I wouldn’t over-generalize here. Quant skills are important in S&T, but most people on S’s desk at one of the “elite” BB were not STEM. S was Econ, although more on the quant end. I think the quant hedge funds is where being a math/physics/CS whiz is a prerequisite.
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My son got his current job because of golf. It’s a great networking sport.
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I am sure there is variation here. But I was told 5 years ago, at a BB, that they are mostly not hiring kids unless they are significantly numerate – I don’t mean whiz kid level background. Engg, physics etc. One desk head had a PhD in condensed matter physics. The guy that ran Global Rates had a PhD in Math from CMU etc. This is the vibe. Econ can also be sufficiently quantitative at many schools. The reason for this is that you wouldn’t understand the risk a lot of desks run unless you are sufficiently numerate. A lot of desks have non linear risk. That is where the margins are higher.
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Curious – which industry is your son in? By the way I did suggest to my son that he should learn golf. He had zero interest. He said nobody he knows (outside of his high school) plays golf 
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