corollary: the few times you should actually care about computational algorithmic complexity are when the unit of work is a unit of I/O (e.g. a database request), not a unit of computation https://twitter.com/stillinbeta/status/1380535272044163076">https://twitter.com/stillinbe...

I& #39;m of the mindset that complexity classes are still good things for programmers to know and understand (albeit not necessarily interviewed on).

However, they& #39;re taught as matters of computational complexity, but computation is almost never your bottleneck anymore in real life.

Being a *good* programmer (as opposed to a mediocre one) requires understanding your systems at one level of abstraction deeper than what is strictly "necessary" for your job.

If you& #39;re put off by my use of the word "mediocre" here, I would encourage you to watch @jacobian& #39;s keynote at PyCon 2015.

"Mediocre" isn& #39;t inherently pejorative. (It can be, but it doesn& #39;t have to be, and it isn& #39;t always).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIJdFxYlEKE">https://www.youtube.com/watch...

The idea of mediocrity as presented in this talk is quite uncomfortable to people of color, especially 1st/2nd generation immigrants, because from the very start we& #39;re told that we can& #39;t simply settle for mediocrity - anything less than excellence is a threat to our existence

This perception is perpetuated in the sterotype of the Asian "tiger mom", but that& #39;s not actually the root of it.

The root is, of course, white supremacy, and the raw fact that mediocrity *is* a threat to our individual safety and continued existence.