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Anil was talking about pieces, and in doing so, managed to accurately express a feeling I've had since I came to college. I learned C++ in high school, and I learned Java freshman year at SU, but I always had a feeling of this isn't me-ness. This is why I decided to switch to the B.A. program shortly thereafter.
His point is that a lot of Computer Science programs have a focus of hardcore programming and math: building the blocks with which to build the world. But this is contrary to everything about how it's supposed to work, going back to the spawn of the Hacker Ethic. The goal should be making "tools to make tools". That is, using the blocks that have been previously built. Why are we teaching people to reinvent the wheel? The vast majority of my job is piecing together code written by someone else to make cool stuff that other people haven't seemed to get right yet. (Using tools to make tools to make tools, if you will. This is why monkeys can't build skyscrapers.) I expect this will be the case for most of my career, perhaps even strengthen in truth. Pity that many of my peers won't figure that out until after they've been working for a while on stuff that's been done and been done better. And what hasn't been done already will most definitely be shipped overseas due to the fact that "the entire Indian subcontinent is learning Java."
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