desperate for change

Doing my Masters in Computer Science has been an eye-opener.

I used to think that I was a hotshot programmer – there is nothing in the world that can’t be solved with a little coding magic. Boy, was I in for a reality check: pretty much every single course in the MSc program pushed me beyond my intellectual comfort level. Don’t even get me started about the theory intensive classes – I got smashed like a punching bag (and I liked it).

Was it worth it? Yes of course. I’d rather be able to acknowledge my lack of knowledge in a particular domain, than to be totally oblivious to its existence. The upside of a Masters is now clear to me – I am able to imagine projects, products and ideas far beyond where my programming skills can take me.

The downside? My threshold for doing boring things has lowered significantly. I really can’t do McProgramming jobs any more. Well, I could if I need the job to put food on the table but I would rather not have to.

Tags: masters

This entry was posted on Friday, January 4th, 2008 at 11:24 pm and is filed under Change. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.