Re: [Nolug] One Weekend Messing With Perl

Ron Johnson <ron.l.johnson@cox.net> writes:

> The focus of the comic was Perl, not general programming.

Check the left side of the chart (“Usefulness to career success”) and
the hover text (“And the ten minutes striking up a conversation with
that strange kid in homeroom sometimes matters more than every other
part of high school combined.”)

The XKCD author is making a bigger point about high school than hacking
Perl on the weekends.

> Yay, let's have a pissing match!!!

I'm not trying to belittle you, show off my own skills, or offend you.
Obviously, I failed.

I apologize.

> I bet Woz and Joy did pretty good in Math class, so what's you're
> point?
>
> As far as Gates, WTF cares? He was never a really good programmer
> anyway.

People who care about “career success” care.

Sure, they probably did well in math classes. Since the Woz, for
example, was designing circuits before he got into high school, I think
what they studied in high school (as the comic points out) is beside the
point.

Woz, Joy, and Gates are each successful in different ways but are also
each technically oriented people who spent time before college hacking
on hardware or software outside a conventional educational context.

And each of these people had good connections to the right people.
Woz's father was an engineer in Palo Alto and brought home technical
manuals. Gate's mother sat on the board of Coca-Cola.

(I was wrong about Bill Joy, btw, and mis-remembered the anecdote.)

Mark.
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Received on 12/21/08