Computers: Have you finished SICP, learned operating systems and algorithms?"
I haven't written my own OS or programming language if that's what you mean, but I find solving problems that have already been solved a zillion times better by thousands of other people working together over decades to be distasteful; what's the point?
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Reinventing the wheel won't get you a better car, but you'll understand the hell out of the wheel.
It is also theoretically possible that tinkering with wheels is pleasant. Though perhaps it's not for everyone.
It is even possible -- bear with me here -- that while rebuilding the wheel in your own way you will discover something new and interesting. Even in an ancient and venerable field like computer science, which has been picked over by dozens, perhaps even a hundred world-class minds for as long as six decades. [1]
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[1] One of the many charms of growing older is that you come to understand things, like why older people were always rolling their eyes at you when you were seventeen. I remember back when I was young, thinking about the futuristic year 2000. "My god," I would think, "I will probably live to see the year 2000! Although I'll be 29 then, so I'll be much older."
I haven't written my own OS or programming language if that's what you mean, but I find solving problems that have already been solved a zillion times better by thousands of other people working together over decades to be distasteful; what's the point?
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Reinventing the wheel won't get you a better car, but you'll understand the hell out of the wheel.