Computer Science: Just the Useful Bits
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This podcast is the product of Noah Gibbs, and of a large and supportive community willing to share their experiences, to listen and share, and to offer feedback.

There was also a teddy bear and a stuffed chimpanzee involved. If you have really good models, why not take lots of photos, right?

You know that time in class when somebody asks, “when are we ever really going to use this?” That’s a hard question for a student or a teacher to answer. Some of the stuff that gets taught is, frankly, useless. Some of it’s incredibly powerful. A lot of it depends on what you wind up doing for a living afterward. I can tell you which bits were useful for me, but I can’t tell you which were useful for everybody.

You know who can tell you that? Everybody.

So I invite them on the podcast.

The Interviews

More specifically, I look for working software developers who can answer, “which parts of this are useful to a working software developer?” I have a guest for each episode, and I try to have a topic or three that we decide ahead of time. That way we don’t wind up with a long pause while the guest and I both try to think of something interesting to say.

Sometimes we stay pretty close to the prearranged topic. Sometimes it goes all over the place. That’s what happens when you ask everybody! I like it. I hope you do too.

The Results

I have a lot of these prerecorded and I’m putting them out every week. I’m on UK time, so sometimes the timing may be weird for you. Mea culpa!

I’m currently trying to do a transcription and set of URLs for all the episodes. It’s a lot of work, so no clue if I’ll stick with it. I think it makes the result a lot more valuable! I just also have three kids.