A reader (Jim) added this comment to my post on Linux and NetBeans and it got me thinking in a bit more detail about all the courses I’ve done from 2001 to now and what ‘unites’ a lot of quite disparate subject areas:
Going from English and Philosophy, to Psychology and Computing into Design is certainly an unusual path to take!
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You should have a look at T214 and T306, the Systems courses, I think you’ll find they bring together a lot of what you seem to be interested in.
I suppose the common theme with many or all of the subjects I’ve worked with is the idea of the object of study (whether that’s a literary work, Java program, AI simulation of emergent systems, social scientific ‘phenomenon’ etc) exists as a system with linked and interacting parts, rather than a lot of details to remember – one of the reasons I’m not too keen on subjects such as “pure” science, history etc … Maybe this is a way of approaching study (or approaching anything, really) rather than being inherent in the subject itself, and some subjects are just more ‘open’ to being viewed in this sort of way.
In that sense I agree it’s an unusual path but also linked at a ‘deeper’ level… the difficulty I suppose is how to get this across to people rather than coming over as something of a ‘drifter’ or ‘indecisive’ in that I’ve seemed to study a little about a lot of things rather than a lot about increasingly specialised areas… the main reason a PhD doesn’t appeal at all (though I would like to be Dr. Jane Doe of course!)
It just makes a lot more sense to view something like language, a computer program, designed object etc etc as being made up of a lot of small parts and that it’s combining the parts (and knowing how to combine them!) that causes a system to be ‘good’ or otherwise… A lot of the non-academic stuff I’m interested in, such as making music (I play guitar and bass) follow the same principle really, with separately interacting elements making up something ‘more’ that’s ultimately viscerally rather than intellectually experienced.
The Systems courses are something I’ve looked at before and put on the mental ‘future courses’ list but not pursued in any detail yet – mostly because as 60 point courses they are quite a commitment and expense considering that now I’ve already done a Bachelor’s and a Master’s it’s primarily for ‘fun’ and personal development… though I think mostly the aversion to 60 points on one course is because it then cuts off options for what can be done additionally (in terms of scheduling, and also with the maximum 120 points or 1 month overlap for more rule). The worst part of having to make a decision to do something is the sense of cutting off other options and that’s probably why I’ll work my way through all interesting (to me) subject areas and miss out anything that appears to me just an unrelated collection of details to memorise!
