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by glutamate 408 days ago
In the beginning, when you read papers like this, it can be hard work. You can either give up or put some effort in to try to understand it. Maybe look at some of the other Jepsen reports, some may be easier. Or perhaps an introductory CS textbook. With practice and patience it will become easier to read and eventually write like this.

You may not be part of that world now, but you can be some day.

EDIT: forgot to say, i had to read 6 or 7 books on Bayesian statistics before i understood the most basic concepts. A few years later i wrote a compiler for a statistical programming language.
2 comments
cr3ative 408 days ago
I’ll look to do so, and appreciate your pointers. Thank you for being kind!
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concerndc1tizen 408 days ago
The state of the art is always advancing, which greatly increases the burden of starting from first principles.

I somewhat feel that there was a generation that had it easier, because they were pioneers in a new field, allowing them to become experts quickly, while improving year-on-year, being paid well in the process, and having great network and exposure.

Of course, it can be done, but we should at least acknowledge that sometimes the industry is unforgiving and simply doesn't have on-ramps except for the privileged few.

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_AzMoo 408 days ago
> I somewhat feel that there was a generation that had it easier

I don't think so. I've been doing this for nearly 35 years now, and there's always been a lot to learn. Each layer of abstraction developed makes it easier to quickly iterate towards a new outcome faster or with more confidence, but hides away complexity that you might eventually need to know. In a lot of ways it's easier these days, because there's so much information available at your fingertips when you need it, presented in a multitude of different formats. I learned my first programming language by reading a QBasic textbook trying to debug a text-based adventure game that crashed at a critical moment. I had no Internet, no BBS, nobody to help, except my Dad who was a solo RPG programmer who had learned on the job after being promoted from sweeping floors in a warehouse.

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robertlagrant 408 days ago
> solo RPG programmer

The kids might not know this means "IBM mainframe" rather than "role playing game" :)

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