Theory to systems: A grounded approach to programming language education (2019) | Hacker News Reader

Theory to systems: A grounded approach to programming language education (2019)

arxiv.org

51 pointsvector_spaces12 comments

I'm finding it increasingly difficult to pursue anything intellectually demanding outside of work. I used to be able to stay up late and immerse myself in whatever I was interested in, but can't seem to anymore. I still try and I'm always excited to sit down and dig in, but I find that I just don't have the mental energy anymore. I dunno if it's a function of age or my work getting more and more demanding over time. Sometimes I wonder if I ought to take a few-week staycation just to pursue my intellectual interests. Does anyone else relate to this? How do you manage to pursue subjects rigorously after feeling mentally drained by work and life?

Law of Focus - at risk of being unhelpful, if you only have enough energy for work, then you’d best carefully select your work

This actually is helpful. You mean to say that if I can only focus on work then it should ideally satisfy or gratify me intellectually or at least align with some of my interests, whereas if my work leaves me with plenty of leftover energy then I can afford to be pretty flexible/unpicky about my work? Do I have that right?

everything worth doing takes a long time to compound; I don’t think anyone can afford not to be intentional about our investments. Plant a tree. Quit alcohol. Start a school. Raise your kids. All the fruit is at the tail.

It sounds like you’re on the edge of burnout.

When’s the last time you took a day off?

That's probably part of it. I took off a few months back but a) it wasn't the type of vacation that I personally recharge from and b) it was a week (maybe less) and wasn't enough. All the stress and fatigue induced by work returned pretty quickly upon return. Much of this is just how demanding my job is I think.

The fact that you acknowledge that it wasn't really a vacation that would help you in that situation, and you don't know how long it was says everything you need to know.

I'm not going to tell you how to live your life, but I want you to know that it's okay to not do everything. In fact, you can't do everything. Sometimes it doesn't seem like it, but sometimes you just need someone else to say it.

Link to the course: https://stanford-cs242.github.io/f18/

Discussed at the time:

From Theory to Systems: A Grounded Approach to Programming Language Education - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19670518 - April 2019 (14 comments)

Are Theory and Systems the "soft" and "hard"* of CS? In principle, one gets to the same mountain-top no matter whether one starts ascent on the theory or on the systems side, but in practice, it seems departments specialise in routes on either northern or southern faces.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_and_soft_techniques

wow, I really wish I had this course in college. if this is what the cs degree at my university looked like I would never have switched to a humanities degree

> focused on using systems programming ideas and languages like WebAssembly

You kind lost me there.

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