[dherman]

It's frustrating but unfortunately all-too-common to see the number of posts in this thread subtly (or not-so-subtly) questioning the "seriousness" of the speaker. In my opinion, this talk is doing one of the most important things for Rust in particular and our industry in general: demonstrating that badass technology is not exclusively reserved for the Very Serious People of the world, but that enabling technologies and communities with the right attitude, like Rust, can unlock people's potential and give them opportunities that were otherwise unattainable for them.

Nothing makes me more excited about Rust than its enabling potential, and this talk hits on all the most important themes. (In my own small way, I'm trying to help push on this Rust theme by helping the Rust subcommunity of language bridges, to create better on-ramps for programmers in other ecosystems to make use of Rust.)

I think it behooves all of us, particularly those of us who haven't had to deal with being a member of a class of people whose credentials are constantly questioned, to ask ourselves what unconscious biases may be causing us to doubt the validity of a presentation based on signifiers like "too many doodles" or "I happen not to have known <some specific fact>," instead of addressing the actual content.

But again, I just want to say that I am over the moon that this was the closing talk at RustConf. Rust could have no higher calling than to be an instrument of opportunity for new systems programmers.

[brinker]

Thank you so much for saying this. I agree wholeheartedly and think this is a very important point to make. Really, the whole pattern of Why Don't You Know This Already is nothing but harmful. When someone learns something new and shares it, we shouldn't look down on them or demean them for not knowing it already. We all learn different things at different times, and not every CS program teaches the same things. Some are more math focused, some are more engineering focused, and even within those bounds there's space for a huge degree of variation. Let's not put people down because their degree didn't happen to teach something. Let's appreciate their excitement for learning that thing now.

[raimue]

My intention was not to attack the speaker or question their education. It is very clear that the speaker knows what she is talking about in her presentation.

I wrote this comment on this small detail in the talk as that surprised me. I am involved in teaching CS classes (yes, systems programming) at a university. Every undergrad student has to take these classes here in order get at least basic understanding of how a computer works, both hardware and software. And that does not only include CS students. Even in specialized courses such as Business or Health Informatics, Electrical Engineering, or Mechatronics, all students will have to pass at least one class in systems programming.

As I learned in this thread, my understanding of basic CS knowledge is different from what others learn in their university courses. When others describe in this thread how many math classes they had in their curriculum, this reminds me more of Applied Mathematics. Apparently, US universities also offer separate courses to get a degree in Computer Engineering. No such thing exists here in Germany, everything with computers is just "Informatik", and translated to English as "Computer Science" on the degree.