[jimmies]

>For the sake of registering a counterpoint: I disagree entirely that things like kernel development or assembly (and let’s throw in architecture, computability theory, and all that jazz for good measure) are even remotely useful in software engineering. You’ll forget most of it and personally I don’t think it will even meaningfully alter your performance over the long term.

I said I want to take them because I want to (i.e. they are fun to me personally), not because I said they are useful. I think that's the same reason many people went deep into a field, they found it fun to work on problems in that field. Sure, we're not the hot shit, it might not teach us many useful skills. But somehow the idea of satisfaction in the field of study and work goes a long way to me. It makes me stay late at night working on things that matter instead of smoking weed every night and wonder about our life choices and thinking about dropping out. I've been there, done that, I know how it feels to be in a noble place but dead inside. I'd choose to be creative and inspired to work any day of the year.

>Some of us software engineers get to thinking we’re hot shit. We're not. For one simple reason: what we do is almost always deterministic. Someone has done it before and written it down so that you can do it too. At worst, you have to tweak something a bit to make it work for your situation.

>In the real world, nondeterminism drives novel value. In other words, everything wrapped around the lines of code you write is what's important. That means you're going to be hard-pressed to make a dent in anything if all you can do is write code.

I totally agree. Personally, I think of myself closer to being a creative person than a procedural person. I think creativity is very very important perhaps, as much as competency. That's why inspiration is great, and that's why studying something that I find fun is important.