Why This All Matters

▶ABOUT ME◀
I am a professor of Computer Science, and am passionate about it. I have taught many courses at several different universities, including several sections of undergraduate and graduate theory-level classes.

The views expressed in this video are not reflective of any of my current or former employers.

[iamkushagrakaushik]

I always think that there is a sense of accomplishment when you solve a problem yourself instead of doing it the EASY WAY.

[papciuszkin]

It's an interesting topic to discuss. During my engineering studies we had a lot of classes about topics that are not really relevant to CS (for example history of civilization, business, ...) and some that only on the first look are not relevant to CS (physics, electrical engineering). A lot of people in my year were mad at the uni for including those classes (partly because a lot of people failed them). During one of the lectures with the dean, we had a Q&A session and someone asked about those "pointless" lectures. The dean had an amazing answer that I still keep near to my heart. "We as engineers, masters, doctorates and professors have an obligation to not only know the specific subject we want to study. We need to know (if only the basics) of many fields and exercise our ability to learn and adapt so we can not only improve ourselves but also, hopefully, help people around us" (I might have messed up the translation to English).

Not only that, but the further along in education I got (currently master's degree in CS) that learning many different subjects is also kind of "speedruning" humanity's progress in a lot of subjects. Other than that, in later years I've found the joy in studying mainly because of the awesome staff at my uni.

Great point about searching for THE WAY to study. Life is indeed short, and finding the optimal way to study for some can be a requirement for their tasks. But numerous times I've seen people searching for THE WAY just to waste a lot of time searching for it and lose interest (no payout for the lost time). Sometimes it's just better to jump right into it.

The thing to keep in mind is that there are a lot of people creating new things every day. Right now, we are seeing major advancements in generative AI (although it has slowed down a bit). So having just a really basic knowledge (but knowing about it!) can help ease the fatigue of keeping up with progress.

But enough of my rambling. Great video and it's good to hear from you again after a break in videos (other that the video few days back)!

[Daniel-dce]

You are the definition of what a professor should be.
Your playlists on Computation and Complexity is priceless.
Any chance that you will make videos/playlist on Probabilistic Turing machine (and there complexity classes) to close the all deal?
Thank you for all the time you put on this channel !!

[priyanshujainf]

Really agreed with what you say. Having some experience in teaching coding fundamentals. Just the fundamentals I found that learners did not want to go beyond pasting the questions in chatgpt and taking the code from there. They did not want to code even simple python one-two liners themselves. As it too effort.

But I am teaching myself Data Science and Programming from past 3 years. Previously learned Financial Analytics and found the holes in my Maths, Stats, Data Science and Programming. All of which I had plugged to a fair amount in past years. LeetCode grind etc. Now I am combining them and working on implementing Analysis of Financial Time Series by Ruey S. Tsay. A tough task but again as you say. Critical thinking is worth it.

Thank you for this wonderful channel. Can see and relate to you a lot. Learning from your videos a lot.

You are awesome and a really good person.

[ugvwvbv]

Very well said professor. This is the age of simplicity and fastness and result weighs much more over the process, but unfortunately it is the process that gives depth to the "simplicity" we are seeking. On a side note, in my CS program there's lots of complaints on how "irrelevant" the coursework is to the industry. My very first response is always this: if you just want to be a coder, not a computer scientist, you're in the wrong place. You will be even better served giving up your high school education altogether and train in some bootcamp and just crunch code like a machine.
Of course, this will not happen anymore because when your work lacks depth, you are the target of replacement by AI.

[sirrsch]

all the love in the world for you man. you are like a therapist who guides me through all these abstract problems and shit

[PCguyNoah]

Thank you easy theory, your videos were crucial in helping me pass my computational theory class. I would not have graduated without you!!

[infinitedonuts]

I’m about to take theory of computation and even though I’m a bit nervous to take the course, I have to say what videos of yours that I have seen so far have helped me feel more at ease.

[JayXu-jvws]

Thank you for the video! One crucial difficulty of this is, I found that there are too many of us, no matter where. Like in schools, in streets, in companies. The cost of teaching individuals is expensive. And the “true”learning experience is also time consuming. I believe as long as a person learning anything this person never seen before, they would ask questions repeatedly. However, in school, along with the office hours and helps from fellow students, is it still impossible for students to learn very well in a reactive environment. Recently, although many teachers strictly forbidden ChatGPT, I think these AI tools are really great for learning as one can repeatedly and extensively ask questions without hesitation.

[TheFAR]

Thank you very much for your effort and work. I strongly agree with your philosophy for teaching. As a humble graduate bioinformatics student, I am eager to learn cs theory to enhance my thinking for biological systems. Thank you again for all your quality videos. ❤

[jackpiggyinabag]

I am no longer a cs undergrad. I am watching because I did not understand theory back then but now I need these theory to build something in my personal project lol books become difficult to understand when all basics became obsolete in my head...

[wetbadger]

My final is coming up. I'm praying to reach that Zen state of understanding soon.

[valuetraveler]

I love everything you do - life is a journey to death. Sometimes you need patience - it has taken about 12 months of solid effort to start to see the beauty of it all. We need that patience in our other relationships

[Freezeey-tnwn]

You motivated me enough to learn for my toc examn despite me having difficulties trying to get an edge over everything in this subject, maybe im just too foolish on myself, but never did I stop, I always come back to toc and learn from it despite me having said that I do not like the subject since it has no "real application" but you and your channel proved me wrong and gave me a total different view of things. Thank you alot

[matheusaraujo]

Last semester I had a formal language and automata class and was thinking exactly about this. My teacher said that it’s is not so applicable to real life, but he also said that we do because it’s cool hahaha He got genuinely happy when we talk about the subject with him.

I really enjoyed your point of view. It’s important to trust ourselves and really go deep to understand the things

[soc]

2:20 : that right there is the experience towards Physics I too have shared. Only you and Feynman have ever described this experience in such a beautiful manner.

[slammesh]

this was an incredible video. From a student you’ve never had formally enrolled, thank you for all your work prof.

[samoboii]

I found this channel while trying to study for my automata exam but then I realized this channel is more than just a couple of theory videos...

[erikkhan]

I want to thank u professor because of ur video of why to learn "theory of computation" my doubts were cleared .
I learned the importance of logical thinking when i started my journey in islamic studies .We have a beginners textbook of logic called Isagoge written by Athīr al-Dīn al-Abharī . They teach us to verify or nullify every single metaphysical claim, construct and destruct philosophies.

[Bebettermyfriend]

Hi dude, I am watching you from Iran, and also I am glad that I found your channel right now, God bless you