(Berkeley’s CS 61A at an all time high enrollment of 2000 students. Lectures need to be split up because of limited auditorium size. Photo courtesy of John Denero.)
Before you graduate college, you spend your whole life locked in a system. The elementary and middle school systems are simple: are you an average, below average, or above average student?
Next, we move to the high school system. Now, things count. You take classes and are evaluated on tests and participation for four years. You also take a standardized test like the ACT or SAT. Perform well on the tests, and you are rewarded with a good college.
Finally, we have the college system. Your area of study becomes more focused and more difficult. Take your classes, pass the tests, and come out with your degree. This degree is (in theory) a voucher: good for one full time job.
You can then choose to stay in the system for a while longer, either by going to grad school or taking a job at a megacorp with a system of its own.
I’ve always disliked being in the system. At least, that’s how I felt the entire time I was in it.
But now, I’m out of it, and it does not feel the way I expected. Now that I have nothing but freedom, I understand why the mental security of a system is so appealing. You go from having to make very few decisions about your life direction to having to make all of them. In a system, you don’t need to figure out your own trajectory: the trajectory is established and the criteria is clear. It’s less risky, more predictable, and therefore less stressful.
The only downside being, of course, that you end up relinquishing your control to the wrong system and hating your life.
I would like to remain close to the university system, but not deeply involved in it, just… tangentially. Close to where the heart beats. Maybe I’m just feeling separation anxiety now that I’m going out into the real world, but I feel that there’s so much passion, knowledge-sharing, and excitement in the university system that it would be a shame to not stay involved in some way.
Yet with that said, I learned a lot from the things I did not like about the college system.
I want to get to know y’all better. Who are you? Where are you from? What do you like to do? So if you want to chat, “@” me on Twitter (@liamport9) or send me a DM.
I came to Berkeley because it’s the best school I got into. Cal has an exceptional reputation, especially in computer science. Much of the software that the world runs on today was either built or inspired by research at Berkeley.
That’s one of the incredible things about Computer Science. Because the field is so young, a lot of the core contributors are still alive today, and many of them teach at Berkeley.
Yet, this school’s legendary status has also contributed to its demise. Aspiring students are drawn to the school’s reputation, and it’s starting to get crowded. I, perhaps naively, expected my college learning experience to be something akin to the karate kid; wax-on wax-off with a computer guru or something.
Instead, I’m on an assembly line.
The college learning environment at Berkeley often felt like an weirdly efficient machine that pumps information into your brain. It was effective, but not always the most inspiring experience..
In a place like Berkeley studying Computer Science, there’s just too many kids for every faculty member. The curriculum is designed by some of the most talented professors, but it almost doesn’t matter that they’re the ones teaching it. These teachers have created a blueprint for a Computer Science education: follow the instructions and you will create a good engineer.
I almost didn’t realize how distant I was from my university. That is, until COVID-19 hit.
It’s the remarkable lack of change in my routine after COVID-19 that shattered the illusion. Before the pandemic hit, all my classes were already recorded. Even the smallest courses in my major had several hundred students. Too many to fit in one auditorium. The teachers expect most of the students to watch the recording instead of coming to lecture. Discussion and labs are mostly taught by undergraduate TA’s, and office hours are more like mini-lectures rather than one-on-one time with the ‘prof.
What made me pursue higher education were the inspirational teachers I had in high school. In this college environment, most students don’t get any personal relationship with their professors. If you’re lucky, you’ll get a good GSI for your discussion section (shout out to my CS70 GSI Dan, the German yogi. I will never forget all your sausage jokes). But these are few and far in-between.
So, while I may now be equipped with the necessary skills, there is something left to be desired. Its time to go small.
Physics in the living room
I just finished reading The Idea Factory. It discusses the entire life span of AT&T Bell Labs. As a computer scientist especially, its funny to see so many crucial figures at the foundation of the tech industry all under one roof.
Its a strange world of physicists, chemists, and mathematicians; all geniuses, creating revolutionary technology from the ground up.
One bit that particularly stood out to me was when William Shockly, the father of solid-state physics and, later, a rabid eugenicist, teaching a coworker physics out of his living room every week. A group of Bell scientists would also take classes in their spare time at Columbia and meet to discuss emerging areas in physics.
What we have here is small, personal learning environments with some of the most exceptional and eccentric people in the field. If big college classes are factory farms, then this is organic, cage-free, pasture raised education. Harder to find, but much more effective when you do.
This is the sort of learning environment I’ll be looking for now. That could mean befrending some PhD students or starting a reading group with some friends.
I just joined a reading group that meets weekly to discuss papers covering global existential risk. This is totally outside my field, but it’s been a lot of fun and I’ve already learned a ton.
But, more importantly, its a way to meet and discuss ideas with interesting people. That’s the reason I joined it.
I’ll be looking for more communities like this. I’m mostly looking to get to know people who are creative and passionate about what they work on. If this sounds like you, my DM’s are open. Lets chat.