[hackermailman]

Something that isn't easily learned in the wild is precision in communications. For example the few interviews I've had, each time they asked me to implement a solution to some problem, then continue to refine the solution to be more efficient while talking through my solution(s). At any moment when I mentioned some jargon like 'invariant' or 'accumulator' they would ask me to precisely define it, something which for me would be difficult to do without some academic background, just because I would be likely to give a weak definition or inaccurate methaphor and be corrected as the interviewers I had all had degrees and it showed, they were very precise with their communications. The more courses I complete, the more I realize how imprecise I (still) communicate. I learned later after being hired what they wanted was somebody who would not bluff their way through meetings, and had the ability to precisely explain solutions or have the ability to admit 'I'm not sure' since these outfits handled a lot of money and apparently, there are a lot of bluffers around in that industry that sink companies.

".. and here is a boolean condition that is true immediately before every evaluation of the loop guard, and due to preservation..."

"Stop there and define preservation for us". "Stop there and define what an undecidable problem is".

If you want a crash course in various undergrad theoretical compsci topics to help refine your communications like how to state something is true and then justify it, there is this good YouTube playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLm3J0oaFux3aafQm568bl...