To compare your reply to my post, you are basically saying that learning to be a master lumberjack will make me a better programmer. That does no compute (pun).

If someone was to sit me down and make me learn machine language and legacy languages, I would be able to agree with you. Unfortunately, I don’t understand how data transmission is in any way an abstraction of programming.

I will share two personal examples which highlight my point. First, my field of epidemiology is heavily rooted in statistics, specifically biostatistics. As a practicing epidemiologists, I utilize methods which are built on complex statistics. Now, I don’t need to know how each formula was derived since I am more of a consumer of statistics not necessarily a creator. However, I do need to know the assumptions of each test, the advantages and the limitations. The more I understand how each statistics was derived, the more I understand and conceptualize their use. So while Bayesian algorithms may seem as a difficult topic to understand, the more I do so, the better epidemiologist I am.

Second, as a practicing martial artist holding black belts in Filipino Kali and Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do, and I belt in Gracie Jiu Jitsu, I sometimes hear others in the martial arts world scoff at different arts or certain techniques. I know better. I might think one martial art is superior to all, and in that respect only find the need to study that one art. However, I would be robbing myself of an understanding of the whole of martial arts as well as the history. By study techniques from various martial arts, I become more versed in my own personal art. That way I am able to respond better to different situations; whereas, had I limited myself to one field of study, I would not know what to do.

Ultimately, college does not teach you how to perform your job in the real world. As Lawrence Fishburn said in “Higher Learning”, “The University teaches you how to think.” They are teaching you pieces of the puzzle to make you better in your field. This way, you are ready to learn job-specific tasks once in the real world. If you want to learn how to make Apps, then read a book, watch a YouTube video, or talk to a developer, because they sure aren’t going to teach you something that useful in the classroom; At least not until you are at the PhD level in your field….

At the end we learn a lesson: stay away from Best Buy, don’t bought anything from them and if you, then at least don’t trash your money on “extended warranties and/or protection programs”.