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From: bzs@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Barry Shein)
Newsgroups: net.cse
Subject: Re: Role of computer science
Message-ID: <1701@bu-cs.bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Date: Sat, 4-Oct-86 21:16:02 EDT
Article-I.D.: bu-cs.1701
Posted: Sat Oct  4 21:16:02 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 8-Oct-86 19:17:36 EDT
Organization: Boston U. Comp. Sci.
Lines: 36


> In fact, academia tends to do the student a disservice, by teaching
> the values of academia as the only relevant values.  In fact,
> academia has strange notions about what is important for programmers.
> Most programmers need not know anything about writing compilers, for
> example.

Oh lord, anti-intellectualism, a great American tradition, makes the
uneducated feel like they're worth something too (you are, stop being
so defensive...)

Most *anythings* don't need to know about *whatever*.

Only educated people do, they are the minority, so you are correct.
Don't worry, most people go through compiler courses without learning
anything anyhow so they are safe by your standards.

If a person does not wish to be educated, they have every right not to
be. Those of us enslaved to academic values and pursuits do not sneer
at such folks, in fact, they are interesting topics for research
studies...

I have no doubt the world is filled with mediocre souls who need to be
parsimonious about their endeavors lest their little brains get filled
up, which I presume is some sort of painful condition. I strongly
suggest such mean folks shy away from the halls of academia so the
rest of us may be free to endeavor in our frantic pursuit to be
knowledgeable about everything in our fields and elsewhere.

I also think that the claim that "the values of academia as the only
relevant values" are the primary obsession of those in academia is
quaint, did you get that from a Shavian novel? I doubt it is from any
real-world experiences which you claim insight into, but it is
amusing, I wish it were true sometimes.

	-Barry Shein, Boston University