I mean, I agree with you in principle. I think programming a robotic car would be really cool. There's a difference between a foundation (FS, OS, algorithms, etc) and lots of random specialist exposures, though.
I consider myself a generally good programmer. I've been doing it since I was ~6-7, so 15 years now, five of them professionally. I've solved problems in dozens of domains, using probably 20 languages in every major paradigm. But my background is in life sciences, and I've been increasingly feeling like checking out every "cool" technology for the consumption value is a great way to end up a dabbler. It's a little bit of a false dichotomoy, but not entirely. How does this matter to me? is a good first-order heuristic when you're already working 80 hours a week.
That said, I do know the fun of diving into things that seem interesting without necessarily having an immediate application -- I learned most of my languages and technologies that way -- but for some reason, "Programming a Robotic Car" I guess just didn't seem intrinsically interesting as stated. Maybe "I'm never going to use this" is the wrong rationalization for that reaction.
I'm pretty sure "programming a robotic car" involves solving all sorts of problems, not merely ones related to the fact that it is a car, and it is robotic.
Even in ordinary college CS, you're almost always faced with very specific assignments, like "write a memory allocator" or "write a search algorithm to help the cat find the mouse in this maze". The intent is to teach you a wide range of ideas and techniques; the specific goal of the task isn't really what's important.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying. The title made me think it would be specialist coverage, but it's actually widely-applicable tools just taught in the context of robotic cars. I'm pretty sure you could teach such a class either way.
I consider myself a generally good programmer. I've been doing it since I was ~6-7, so 15 years now, five of them professionally. I've solved problems in dozens of domains, using probably 20 languages in every major paradigm. But my background is in life sciences, and I've been increasingly feeling like checking out every "cool" technology for the consumption value is a great way to end up a dabbler. It's a little bit of a false dichotomoy, but not entirely. How does this matter to me? is a good first-order heuristic when you're already working 80 hours a week.
That said, I do know the fun of diving into things that seem interesting without necessarily having an immediate application -- I learned most of my languages and technologies that way -- but for some reason, "Programming a Robotic Car" I guess just didn't seem intrinsically interesting as stated. Maybe "I'm never going to use this" is the wrong rationalization for that reaction.