This reads to me much less like "What every CS major should know" than "Wouldn't it be nice if all CS majors knew...." What I mean by that is I'm not sure it's possible to learn all of that stuff in 4 years at any school anywhere, but it's all useful in certain very broad contexts.
Of course, I may lack perspective, having been a math major (or due to some other deficiency in my background), but I consider myself pretty comfortable with about half the list and somewhat familiar with about half the remainder. How much of it did I learn as an undergrad, though? Not very damn much, and I don't think I would have even been exposed to it all even if I had done CS instead of math.
Of course book-learning and in-class learning needs to be supplemented with a large amount of self-directed learning. As a professor I'm sure Matt is perfectly well acquainted with the limitations of a 4-year degree program.
This brings up an interesting question: assuming that these things can't be taught in four years and that they matter, should we expect that a degree in CS should require more time?
Comments
This reads to me much less like "What every CS major should know" than "Wouldn't it be nice if all CS majors knew...." What I mean by that is I'm not sure it's possible to learn all of that stuff in 4 years at any school anywhere, but it's all useful in certain very broad contexts.
Of course, I may lack perspective, having been a math major (or due to some other deficiency in my background), but I consider myself pretty comfortable with about half the list and somewhat familiar with about half the remainder. How much of it did I learn as an undergrad, though? Not very damn much, and I don't think I would have even been exposed to it all even if I had done CS instead of math.
Of course book-learning and in-class learning needs to be supplemented with a large amount of self-directed learning. As a professor I'm sure Matt is perfectly well acquainted with the limitations of a 4-year degree program.
This brings up an interesting question: assuming that these things can't be taught in four years and that they matter, should we expect that a degree in CS should require more time?