Comment by acessoproibido
6 hours ago
I'm not so sure. I spent A LOT of time writing sorting algo code by hand in university. I spent so much time writing assembly code by hand. So much more time writing instructions for MIPS by hand. (To be fair I did study EE not CS)
I learned more about programming in a weekend badly copying hack modules for Minecraft than I learned in 5+ years in university.
All that stuff I did by hand back then I haven't used it a single time after.
I would interpret his take a little bit differently.
You write sorting algorithms in college to understand how they work. Understand why they are faster because it teaches you a mental model for data traversal strategies. In the real world, you will use pre-written versions of those algorithms in any language but you understand them enough to know what to select in a given situation based on the type of data. This especially comes into play when creating indexes for databases.
What I take the OPs statement to mean are around "meta" items revolved more around learning abstractions. You write certain patterns by hand enough times, you will see the overlap and opportunity to refactor or create an abstraction that can be used more effectively in your codebase.
If you vibe code all of that stuff, you don't feel the repetition as much. You don't work through the abstractions and object relationships yourself to see the opportunity to understand why and how it could be improved.
You didn't write sorting code or assembly code because you were going to need to write it on the job. It gave you a grounding for how datastructures and computers work on a fundamental level. That intuition is what makes picking up minecraft hack mods much easier.
That's the koolaid, but seriously I don't really believe it anymore.
I only had to do this leg work during university to prove that I can be allowed to try and write code for a living. The grounding as you call it is not required for that at all,since im a dozen levels of abstraction removed from it. It might be useful if I was a researcher or would work on optimizing complex cutting edge stuff, but 99% of what I do is CRUD apps and REST Apis. That stuff can safely be done by anyone, no need for a degree. Tbf I'm from Germany so in other places they might allow you to do this job without a degree