Xe, thank you so much for your work. I love reading your blog, it’s calming and makes me laugh. I look up to you as someone who I would like to be in my professional life. Best wishes :)
My degree course is split across my university’s Computer Science and Engineering departments, so I often get to hear both of the discussions you described. I would say that CS supervisors talking to their students are more direct in saying that the ideas that they come with won’t work or that their mathematics is incorrect, whereas engineering professors seemed to be a bit more subtle and guiding where their students falter, as though they perhaps had the exact same ideas when they were younger and want to gently discourage the same mistakes.
That’s not to say Engineering professors wouldn’t tell you you’re wrong, it just feels that the knowledge gap between the experienced and inexperienced engineer is larger than that for the computer scientist, and so there is more room for small errors to grow into bigger problems if ignored.
> whereas engineering professors seemed to be a bit more subtle and guiding where their students falter, as though they perhaps had the exact same ideas when they were younger and want to gently discourage the same mistakes.
It's because once something fails, in engineering the work doesn't stop. You have to root cause it and understand the failure. That's a valuable exercise in itself.
Especially in central London! I went around on a Zone 1 Uniqlo tour with my friend before lockdown and it's surprising in that different outlets offer different clothing.
I also am a fan of the lack of branding - the simplicity helps to complement other pieces, however I do also buy some of their UT Graphic Tees, especially since the designs are so... well, unique.
I suppose one could use the current size of the Internet Archive as a yardstick for how much public-facing stuff there is. Of course in general terms this also depends on your definition of 'the internet' - consider databases and other such stores. Huge numbers.
Personally, I find it really difficult to make progress without a rigid curriculum. There’s such a wide range of online content that I feel overwhelmed by the choices I have in what I should learn, which is why I decided to go to university in the end - I trust them to pick out the most relevant topics to my field of study. Although, to be fair, I do occasionally look at online courses so I can fill in some of the gaps not covered in lectures.
