On: Path to a free, self-taught education in Computer ...

[frontman1988]

Agreed, theoretical computer science education can be considered a luxury, as it is not typically required for the average programming job. Even if it is needed, you will still need to invest time in revisiting it. It might be more efficient to learn the theory from scratch as needed, as that time could be better spent learning practical skills if your goal is to find employment.

[bombolo → frontman1988]

You can't just learn what you need today without having the culture to understand what you're reading.

Dumb example: counting sort is fast! Ok let's use it. Then your data happens to be an array of 2 elements -10000000 and +10000000.

Or the classic "let's parse a math expression with regular expressions".

[zerodensity → bombolo]

I mean 2 element arrays will be fast to sort.

[bombolo → zerodensity]

The 2 element array in my example will be very slow to sort with counting sort, and you didn't notice.

Exactly the point I was trying to make when saying that knowing theory is useful :)