In undergrad (and high school too) a lot of time was spent memorizing stuff. For exams, I broke down all the class material into pages and pages of questions with answers or facts that needed to be memorized to assure I aced the test.
Here’s some examples I dug out of my undergrad archives (poorly formatted - I just saved them as .htm from word).
Senior Year, Computer Science : Image Processing
Freshman year, Meteorology Exam
Freshman year, Humanities (Ancient World?)
I remember having ones much longer than this, but I think they’re living on an external drive somewhere.
I didn’t rest until I was sure I knew every thing on those pages 100%. It was nuts.
I’m glad to be in a field where reference is always at my fingertips. So what if I always forget if the needle or haystack comes first in php strpos. Google is my memory. By being freed from these tedious memorizations, I save room for bigger ideas and strategies I can actually apply.
Do I remember that Peisistratus was an Athenian tyrant, who allowed literature and culture to start to flourish in Athens? No. Do I remember how and why to use recursive functions because I actually had to apply the idea*? You betcha.
* Ok, it also helps that this topic is actually interesting to me.
corrine :
(re: lodwick’s help wanted: http://jakoblodwick.com/post/32044287)
The original post and her reply made me think of this blog entry I read yesterday, “All I need is a programmer”Here’s how this posting should really read:
I am seeking someone with currently high in demand skills to help me build something I hope to make a profit from for free. I am able to invest in websites including muxtape and tumblr, but not the people needed to build them.
Specifically, marketing and distribution can now be achieved at less than one percent of the old cost - especially when you get free labor.
I want to support musicians retaining control of their work while you web minions give me yours for lunch and a subway ride. Try not to think of how I pay my rent while you struggle to pay yours.
