I’m enrolled in an undergraduate CS program as an experienced (10 year) dev. I find AI incredibly useful as a tutor.
I usually ask it to grade my homework for me before I turn it in. I usually find I didn’t really understand some topic and the AI highlights this and helps set my understanding straight. Without it I would have just continued on with an incorrect understanding of the topic for 2-3 weeks while I wait for the assignment to be graded. As an adult with a job and a family this is incredibly helpful as I do homework at 10pm and all the office hours slots are in the middle of my workday.
I do admit though it is tough figuring out the right amount to struggle on my own before I hit the AI help button. Thankfully I have enough experience and maturity to understand that the struggle is the most important part and I try my best to embrace it. Myself at 18 would definitely not have been using AI responsibly.
When I was in college if AI was available I would have abused it way too much and been much worse off for it.
This is my biggest concert about GenAI in our field. As an experienced dev I've been around the block enough times to have a good feel of how things should be done and can catch when and LLM goes off on a tangent that is a complete rabbit hole, but if this had been available 20 years ago I would have never learned and become an experienced dev because I absolutely would have over relied on an LLM. I worry that 10 years from now getting mid career dev will be like trying to get a COBOL dev now, except COBOL is a lot easier to learn.
I’m wondering how the undergrad CS course is as an experienced dev and why you decided to do that? I have been a software developer for 5 years with an EE degree, and as I do more software engineering and less EE I feel like I am missing some CS concepts that my colleagues have. Is this your situation too or did you have another reason? And why not a masters?
A mix of feeling I’m “missing” some CS concepts and just general intellectual curiosity.
I am planning on doing a masters but I need some undergrad CS credits to be a qualified candidate. I don’t think I’m going to do the whole undergrad.
Overall my experience has been positive. I’ve really enjoyed Discrete Math and coming to understand how I’ve been using set theory without really understanding it for years. I’m really looking forward to my classes on assembly/computer architecture, operating systems, and networks. They did make me take CS 101-102 as prereqs which was a total waste of time and money, but I think those are the only two mandatory classes with no value to me.
Computer architecture and operating systems are really important classes imo. Maybe you dont touch the material again in your career but do you really want the thing you're supposed to be programming to be a black box? Personally I'm not ok working with black boxes.
as I am also thinking mildly about doing masters cause I want to break into ai research, I am curious what your motivations are, if you would be open to share those.
> And why not a masters?
Not GP, but in my experience most MSC programs will require that you have substantial undergrad CS coursework in order to be accepted. There are a few programs designed for those without that background.
Shout out to the fantastic Georgia Tech online masters program in CS:
https://pe.gatech.edu/degrees/computer-science
(not affiliated, just a fan)
I have a friend who is self-medicating untreated adhd with street amphetamines and he talks about it similarly. I can't say with any certainty that either of you is doing anything wrong or even dangerous. But I do think you both are overconfident in your assessment of the risks.