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lil  ·  2595 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Why I think the tech interview process is broken – Medium

    Poetry has no place in computer science.
I suppose some people would argue also that a communications course has no place in a computer science program. Many people, in fact. That's why there are so few courses like mine.

Here's the one poem that I put in my course book that so offended my student and confused the rest of them. It was in a chapter on perception checking.

1.

  Where what I see comes to rest,

at the edge of the lake,

against what I think I see

  and, up on the bank, who I am

maintains an uneasy truce

with who I fear I am,

  while in the cabin’s shade the gap between

the words I said

and those I remember saying

  is just wide enough to contain

the remains that remain

of what I assumed I knew.

2.

  Out in the canoe, the person I thought you were

gingerly trades spots

with the person you are

  and what I believe I believe

sits uncomfortably next to

what I believe.

  When I promised I will always give you

what I want you to want,

you heard, or desired to hear,

  something else.  As, over and in the lake, 

the cormorant and its image

traced paths through the sky

Troy Jollimore, The New Yorker, July 27, 2009|

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OK, come at me.