Back to school

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No work done yet, today. Pretended to, but really haven’t made progress.

Going back to school is weird, man. I’m taking a class, if you didn’t know. The title of the class is enough to make any non-computer-geek fall asleep — “Data Structures and Algorithm Analysis”. Are you asleep yet?

I like it so far, I guess. Some of the stuff I “should be familiar with” I am only familiar with in that I’ve heard the terms, and vaguely remember knowing it well when I was 5 years younger. But what’s weird is the different perspective I have on school now that I’ve experienced “the real world”, by having a job. I remember being in college and watching all the people who had come back after having jobs (”the old guys”), and seeing how dedicated/lame they were. I’d go home with homework, look at it a little bit, drink a beer, and end up copying a friend’s before class the next day. They’d come back, having spent all night on the thing, with several in depth questions. I’d be doodling pictures of the professor.

Maybe it’s just because I’m more lame, now (damn near married, not as much boozing, not as many friends), or maybe it’s because I realize that I’m actually going to use this stuff, so I better learn it. I spent all weekend doing some homework, and I’m pretty sure if I just wanted to “get done”, it wouldn’t have taken me that long. But for some reason I wanted to really learn it. Lack of anything else to do? Maybe.

I think that’s the major difference between undergrad and post-grad work. Before doing post-grad, most people have already worked a job, and have had that earth shattering epiphany of “Son of a bitch! I actually had to remember that stuff I learned? Nobody told me that.”

I wish someone had told me. That’s for sure.