well, this is a rare event i have to admit i've been terribly wrong for many years everyone here knows that i'm extremely anti-CS. i've felt that it churned out programmers that have know knowledge of real programming and all that (you've all heard the reasons more times than i can count) i was wrong. CS is fine. there are a lot of courses i disagree with, there are a lot of methods (come on, java for teaching low level shit?) that i completely disagree with but overall, it helps expedite the learning process for the people who would've succeeded anyway the people who would've been shitty coders when self-teaching are going to be shitty coders when they come out of school and the courses shouldn't aimed at teaching programming (which they aren't, i think we can all agree) -- the people who are going to succeed will pick it up anyway what made you realize that? OoTLink: watching Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture" the first part of the lecture is on how to achieve your childhood dreams, which led me thinking about what my childhood dream always was: going to MIT to 'become a programmer' i made the right decision in dropping out of highschool... i made the right decision in teaching myself everything i know but i made the wrong decision in dropping that dream, i think not only that, i've always liked teaching people (hell, i'm planning on starting up reversing courses very shortly), and for many years i thought about becoming a professor, but i eventually decided against doing so... i figured that no school would allow for the things i wanted (curriculum that is entirely based on what the students need to challenge themselves (individual curriculum, in other words) and to achieve their goals, entirely project-based education) ... but he did it and it worked out extremely well... i think i'm actually going to aim to become a professor i've been looking for the right direction to move in for a long time... think this is it to be a prof? or to go to MIT? or both? both