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   Steve Bellovin (stevebellovin@mastodon.lawprofs.org)'s status on Wednesday, 10-Apr-2024 03:30:08 JST Steve Bellovin

   • George Dinwiddie
   • Paul Cantrell
   • Adam Shostack :donor: :rebelverified:

   @adamshostack @gdinwiddie @inthehands There are at least three parts to the answer. The first is that I'm quoting someone (and focusing on what he said about college); I don't have to explain it… Second, most of the incoming students were MS students, not PhD students. They weren't writing papers. Last, this was a very long time ago, when very few people had much CS experience—I was a rare exception. (When I took Data Structures as an undergrad, it was classified as an advanced graduate class.)

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 10-Apr-2024 03:29:55 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • George Dinwiddie
     • Adam Shostack :donor: :rebelverified:

     @SteveBellovin @adamshostack @gdinwiddie
     Not wanting to put more words in Steve’s mouth, but speaking for myself:

     Some grad programs (MSE or my spouse’s masters in speech/lang pathology) are explicitly professional certification, but even those that aren’t have a large element of acculturation and indoctrination: research PhD → here’s how to speak paperspeak & publish; MFA → here’s how to fit your voice into the art world’s hierarchy, etc.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 10-Apr-2024 03:32:37 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • George Dinwiddie
     • Adam Shostack :donor: :rebelverified:

     @SteveBellovin @adamshostack @gdinwiddie
     A feature of many PhD programs — and a serious problem, in my view — is that while cloaked in the garb of human-centered education, they attempt to narrow people into a job-as-self worldview where anything that isn’t a tenured position at a prestigious academic institution constitutes failure. That is the opposite of education. It’s abusive.