After a deacade of using SQL it "clicked" for me(kylebenzle.com)
kylebenzle.com
After a deacade of using SQL it "clicked" for me
https://KyleBenzle.com/sql
11 comments
But… Look, see those birds? At some point a program was written to govern them. A program was written to watch over the trees, and the wind, the sunrise, and sunset. There are programs running all over the place. The ones doing their job, doing what they were meant to do, are invisible. You’d never even know they were here. But the other ones, well, we hear about them all the time.
> Despite programming since high school and holding a computer science degree, it took me years to truly grasp what SQL is and what it does. ...
> ...
> ... The "Ah-ha" moment for me came unexpectedly while I was setting up my local testing environment on a new PC. As I was reinstalling MySQL, it suddenly struck me: "It's just a program. SQL is just a program running on a computer..."
I wouldn't be surprised to hear this from a barista turned "coder" in a 6 week bootcamp, but from a compsci graduate, Seriously? The absolute state of university education today.
I wouldn't be surprised to hear this from a barista turned "coder" in a 6 week bootcamp, but from a compsci graduate, Seriously? The absolute state of university education today.
I went to school fifteen years ago and even then the focus was less on “computer science” and more on “software engineering”. I think, with the enormous rise in demand during the 2010s and the regression to the mean of the undergrads, many programs became almost like trade schools, more “software technician” than “engineer”.
My (weak) prediction is that if the decreased money in tech continues for several more years, coupled with the advent of AI, we’ll see a shift back to more rigorous courses.
My (weak) prediction is that if the decreased money in tech continues for several more years, coupled with the advent of AI, we’ll see a shift back to more rigorous courses.
Lol, you got me, it was only a minor is CS.
Wait until you find out about no-sql :)
Anyone who started programming in the early 2000s would know that intrinsically. Now there are so many tools and frameworks which abstract SQL. It's no surprise that the newer generation has eureka moments discovering structured-query-language as a comprehensive program to interact with databases.
I think it's not the fact there are so many frameworks for SQL abstraction, it's just the whole "computer thing". Like, the programmers before you used punched cards, there after used pointers in C, there after the fancy started. So the same is for the inner workings, may be, of the computer itself? Nowadays, no one knows the turbo button and what it actually did then-a-days. ..And especially the database, which is actually just a bunch of files being put on a disc in-a-row so the head isn't needed to be moved for- and backward the disc to collect the defragmented data but instead find all in the neighborhood sectors. That's like with Socrates: 'The f*cking youth will be societies end' - no, the youth can use tools you can't, they use it to advance forward, my fried Socrates, to advance forward, my friend...!
No doubt the tools are here to stay and I am not opposed to that. My only advice for young programmers is - when something just works like magic, dig deeper until it becomes science.
How on earth did this bubble to the top few pages on HN?
I think the comment from cosmicradiance is more in the spirit of HN. I’m guessing I’m 10 years older than OP, and started devops when LAMP was king. It’s a lot less abstract when you actual install, configure and start the service, as opposed to occasionally opening MySQL Workbench to poke around when things don’t work.
Thank you for the feedback.