What is the most important thing you weren't taught in school?

Posted by Alexandre Brisebois on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Alexandre Brisebois
Published on 2008-11-03T12:57:13Z Indexed on 2010/04/07 2:03 UTC
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What is the most important thing you weren't taught in school?

What topics are missing from the CS/IS education?

Posted so far

  • How to sell an idea

Principles:

  • Often, good enough is better than perfect.
  • Making mistakes is actually a Good Thing™ -- as long as they're new mistakes.
  • If a user can break your code they will.
  • In the Real World™ they're all open-book exams
  • Self confidence is way more important in getting ahead than intelligence.
  • Always prefer simplicity over complexity. The best code is the code that you don't write.
  • You never know when you'll meet someone again ... or where. It's always worthwhile to treat people with respect and kindness.
  • Be aware of what you don't know and don't be afraid to ask questions when you need to

Missing knowledge:

  • How to communicate effectively.
  • Lack of source control
  • Lack of Softskills experience
  • How to productize code
  • How to write secure code
  • How to formulate problems
  • How to self-measurement. To evaluate ones true competences and market worth.
  • How to debug code
  • How important is backup
  • How to read code on a large scale (being able to adapt and build upon existing projects)
  • Good Regular expressions comprehension
  • How to teach others effectively
  • TDD/Unit testing
  • Critical thinking
  • How to integrate different skills and languages in a single project

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