Joel Gives College Advice For Programmers

An anonymous reader writes "Joel on Software explains what college students should do with their lives. Interesting to note is how he justifies such trivialties as GPA scores and well-roundedness, the very things comments here tend to think are overrated. In short, learn to write English, learn to write C, and don't worry about India!"

Re:YES

[StevenHenderson]

Seriosly, bad communication skills generate huge costs in lost time

So do spelling errors... :)

Its . . .

[JJ]

. . . amazing how much bad grammer and poor spelings holds back you.

when I was in College

[WormholeFiend]

I was a closet-nerd.

I joined the Football team, I went to the gym, I dated the cheerleaders... but at some point it got so frustrating to live such a falsehood.

I eventually moved out of the frathouse and into a poorly lit basement appartment and switched from a BA in Phys. Ed. to Computer Sciences.

Now I read slashdot and I live the out-of-closet life of a warflamin'geek! w00

English

[csbruce]

In short, learn to write English, learn to write C, and don't worry about India!

Hinds' Seventh Law: "Make it possible for programmers to write programs in English, and you will find that programmers cannot write in English."

Bruce's Seventh Law: "Make it possible for programmers to write programs in C, and you will find that programmers cannot write in C."

puppeteer philosophy of hiring

[spoonyfork]

If you're in the position to hire personnel and are looking to staff a position... take your stack of applications and divide them in half at random. Take one stack and throw it into the trash.

Avoid hiring unlucky people.

Re:AC Gives College Advice For US Programmers

[wcrowe]

learn bricklaying and plastering, plumbing, carpentry, welding

That way you can compete with Mexicans for jobs instead of Indians.

Re:Slashdot anti-intellectualism

[PitaBred]

Conformance would have made this post much more readable...

Re:Do you want to be Joel?

[Anonymous Coward]

And on that note, while Joel's bug tracking software does do a "fair" job (and I'll agree with his comments about it being a usability-friendly piece of software), it also is very poor for being dynamic or extensible.

Hey Joel you listening? Shoulda tried to stay awake in that "dynamic logic" class, eh?