1. The programs you write in classes differ in three critical ways from the ones you’ll write in the real world: they’re small; you get to start from scratch; and the problem is usually artificial and predetermined. In the real world, programs are bigger, tend to involve existing code, and often require you to figure out what the problem is before you can solve it.

2. That leads to our second difference: the way class projects are measured. Professors will tend to judge you by the distance between the starting point and where you are now. If someone has achieved a lot, they should get a good grade. But customers will judge you from the other direction: the distance remaining between where you are now and the features they need. The market doesn’t [care] how hard you worked. Users just want your software to do what they need, and you get a zero otherwise.

3. There seem to be two big things missing in class projects: (1) an iterative definition of a real problem and (2) intensity.

– Paul Graham

2011.09.04 Sunday ACHK