purpleposeidon comments on Attention Lurkers: Please say hi - Less Wrong

35 Post author: Kevin 16 April 2010 08:46PM

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Comment author: purpleposeidon 20 April 2010 06:35:09AM 5 points [-]

Hi. I see that the first point is free.

I am a Bay Area (California, United States) 19 year-old Computer Science student. I imagine I'll actually be taking actual CS classes next year. I've been lurking about for about a month.

Comment author: sketerpot 21 April 2010 04:13:52AM 0 points [-]

Man, taking freshman introductory classes is a drag. At the risk of insulting your intelligence, I feel compelled to remind you that the most important thing to learn in a CS curriculum is to go out and learn things that aren't taught in your classes, through the power of the internet. For example, you could go out and learn the first programming language in this list that you don't already know: Python, Lisp, C, Haskell. Or read about how some sorting algorithms work. Or write a compiler. Or whatever strikes your fancy, really.

Comment author: purpleposeidon 25 April 2010 11:37:31PM 0 points [-]

I am very familiar with python, and a little bit familiar with C. (I am also a sophomore, not freshmen :P) I spent an hour looking at lisp once, but never got into it. As for Haskell, I have seen it, and it looks weird. I've'n't done much real algorithmic work. I wrote a (Warning: shameful self-plug) parser for Lojban, but it only works through trial-and-error and dumb luck.

Comment author: sketerpot 26 April 2010 08:51:49AM *  0 points [-]

I looked at your code. Why aren't you in "actual CS classes" yet? You're obviously qualified.

Comment author: purpleposeidon 27 April 2010 06:19:53AM 0 points [-]

Because lame community college isn't all that great. I hope Berkeley agrees with you. :)