If it makes you feel better, I studied computer science but frequently feel a sense of inadequacy because it feels less hard core than "real engineering".
Another argument against getting a CS degree is that it's hard to teach yourself engineering on your own but you can teach yourself programming on your own. So in terms of opportunity costs it might make sense to go for engineering. Also, you can go for "X who programs" type roles. See this thread.
If it makes you feel better, I studied computer science but frequently feel a sense of inadequacy because it feels less hard core than "real engineering".
Your sense of inadequacy is probably unjustified. I studied electrical engineering and computer science. Within both fields there's a wide range of hardcore-ness. In both fields you can find people who do incredibly difficult things, and a much larger group of people who do the bare minimum, and people everywhere in-between. I have seen some startlingly incompetent people with engineering degrees, so the lower bound here is pretty low.
Silicon Valley lore is that top programmers are 10x as productive as regular programmers (see Joel Spolsky or Paul Graham). I once attended a lecture series where entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley came to talk, and one point they kept hammering on was the importance of hiring the best people. So if coming from a top school makes SV employers think (correctly or incorrectly) that you're a top programmer, this could go a way towards explaining the salary thing.
So if coming from a top school makes SV employers think (correctly or incorrectly) that you're a top programmer, this could go a way towards explaining the salary thing.
This also works if coming from a top school correlates with some factor that makes SV employers think you're a top programmer. The most obvious example of such a factor is programming skill: you'd expect people at top schools to program better, on average, than people from obscure schools.
I find nothing undignified about it, once you get over "poop is the epitome of indignity" and such (imo) nonsense.
Have you heard a baby being born? A baby is all like "AAAAA! AAAAA! AAAAAAA!", except less textual and more piercing in pitch. Show me a definition of "dignified" which encompasses such shrieking, and I'll show you a definition of "dignified" which lacks mainstream recognition.
No one ever said reality was going to be dignified.
I'd say that the process of childbirth is a clear, up-front warning that it definitely won't be.
After a few weeks I started to enjoy the process of exercising itself. At that point it became it's own reward, no motivation required.
So here's a new motivation for you - keep doing it and you'll start to like it. :-)
Not only does exercise become its own reward, but skipping exercise becomes its own penalty -- you feel physically crappy if you go too long without getting your fix. I see this as a good thing.
If you can find someone else to exercise with, it could help a lot. For me having someone else counting on me to show up is an excellent motivator.
Exercising with someone is also an great way to socialize if you're a quiet person, and ill-at-ease with small talk. Pauses in conversation are natural when people are breathing heavily, there's always at least one shared topic you can talk about, and the exertion tends to make people more cheerful.
I've found Sedgewick's "Algorithms in <language>" to be a great introductory and comprehensive textbook for this stuff.
Seconded; that's the book I learned from, and would have been my runner-up recommendation. In particular, its pictures are excellent, and there are loads of them.
I don't know specific techniques to design good algorithms for problems.
I would suggest reading an introductory book on algorithms and data structures. There are a number of good ones, and none of them is strictly better than the rest, but for your case I would recommend Steve Skiena's Algorithm Design Manual, which can probably be found in your university library. It's very readable, discusses how to go about solving algorithmic problems, and has a lot of breadth.
This is some of the higher bang-for-the-buck knowledge in CS, and surprisingly relevant to the Real World.
There are actual plain text protocols (e.g. SMTP) that do use "HI" for initiating communication.
I believe SMTP uses "HELO", actually (or "EHLO" to enable some extensions). The server then indicates that it heard the HELO command, often with a cheery remark like "Pleased to meet you! I'm a server! :-D"
This is one of the more charming aspects of the internet's plumbing.
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-- Warren Buffett, in some thoughts on investing.