braindump from "Background is Bullshit" open space talk at HTML5.tx

Introverts are less inclined to help others and admit mistakes. You'll learn more in your first month at a real job than in all of you schooling. I posed the question: Why do need four semesters of Calculus to get a computer science degree to build line of business apps. The guy is the red hoodie who I think is running the open source session suggested that a philosophy background is better suited to learning a new language than someone with a heavy math background. Paul Herrera suggests you do need the math 10% of the time. Another guy in the group dropped out of a CS degree over the mathematics hurdle. The guy in the blue with diamonds sweater who may be running the talk instead of the guy in the red hoodie (don't know him either) hates free internships. He also talks about the bs off $100 textbooks and the racket around it. What is latter logic and scratch? The guy two to my right thinks kids are not taught that computers are tool are exposed to something like LOGO as someone my age (38) is. They conservation brought up Arduino and using something with some physicality in lieu of a div tag to encourage kids to learn. The conversation is delving into memory leaks and when to deal with them and not deal with them. Another guy by the guy in the red hoodie mentions how a "rockstar ninja" can impress a boss who knows little code but the boss doesn't realize there will be guys down in the "trash compactor" dealing with the hero's code. Kassandra Perch again asserts that technical debt may be used as an excuse to not try new things or not test stuff believed to work. She is mentioning a problem in which sales is driving development by telling developers that they are spending too much time on peer review. Both of the guys I suspected of running this are gone now so the talk is changing shape. Kevin Miller is taking over with a new topic on Require.js. I guess we are ending.