First of all, the formalism/practice gap is real: taking API calls and updating a database correctly has a mountain of formalism around it. And it is not easy to get right! Concurrent sequential processes and distributed systems theory and a bunch of topics have a huge formalism. It is also the case that many (most?) working software engineers have internalized much of that formalism: they “play by ear” rather than read sheet music, but what matters is if it sounds good.
Second, whether it’s quantum computing or frontier machine learning or any other formalism-heavy topic? It’s eminently possible to learn this stuff. There’s a certain lingering credentialism around “you need a PhD” or whatever, I call BS: this stuff is learnable.
Keep hacking, keep pushing yourself on topics you’re passionate about, but don’t consign yourself to some inferior caste. You’re just as likely as the next person to be the next self-taught superstar.
First of all, the formalism/practice gap is real: taking API calls and updating a database correctly has a mountain of formalism around it. And it is not easy to get right! Concurrent sequential processes and distributed systems theory and a bunch of topics have a huge formalism. It is also the case that many (most?) working software engineers have internalized much of that formalism: they “play by ear” rather than read sheet music, but what matters is if it sounds good.
Second, whether it’s quantum computing or frontier machine learning or any other formalism-heavy topic? It’s eminently possible to learn this stuff. There’s a certain lingering credentialism around “you need a PhD” or whatever, I call BS: this stuff is learnable.
Keep hacking, keep pushing yourself on topics you’re passionate about, but don’t consign yourself to some inferior caste. You’re just as likely as the next person to be the next self-taught superstar.