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

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

However, they'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're put off by my use of the word "mediocre" here, I would encourage you to watch @jacobian's keynote at PyCon 2015.

"Mediocre" isn't inherently pejorative. (It can be, but it doesn't have to be, and it isn't always).

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're told that we can'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'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.