Conversations with a six-year-old on functional programming

Re:Conversations with a six-year-old on functional programming by teirce on Monday May 07, 2018 @05:19PM (#17016567)

I'll second this; he is a fantastic teacher. I had the incredibly fortunate opportunity of learning from Brent in my undergrad at Hendrix, where he currently teaches.

There are other comments here that praise his patience with regard to teaching these topics to a child. I can say without a doubt he maintains the same patience with all of his students - not just his children. If you ever have the opportunity to learn from Brent (be from a course, blog, or talk), I would highly encourage it.

I'm glad to see a post of his making its rounds on HN.

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Re:Conversations with a six-year-old on functional programming by galdosdi on Monday May 07, 2018 @05:57PM (#17016812)

You did CS at Hendrix College? I did too ('11) and can't help mentioning it even though I have little to say... because hey, small school, tiny department, it's not often you run into another Hendrix CS alum, even virtually. And after years in "industry" I really appreciate the surprisingly good CS education there for a not well known school

How's the dept doing these days? Is Ferrer still there?

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Re:Conversations with a six-year-old on functional programming by gjf2a on Monday May 07, 2018 @07:43PM (#17017431)

Hi Domingo, This is Dr. Ferrer. I am pleased to tell you that I am still at Hendrix College, now completing my 16th year. We're doing well. We hired Dr. Mark Goodrich after Collins retired (2014), and we hired Dr. Brent Yorgey (the author of this blog post) in 2015 after Burch departed for Google. Both have been fantastic contributors to the CS program and to Hendrix College.

I'm glad that your education has served you well! I'd love to hear an update from you when you get a chance.

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Re:Conversations with a six-year-old on functional programming by azinman2 on Monday May 07, 2018 @08:54PM (#17017890)

I love HN for all these random connections, even if I have no skin in the game!

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Re:Conversations with a six-year-old on functional programming by senorsmile on Monday May 07, 2018 @11:08PM (#17018536)

Me too. I feel like the world is not as big as it actually is!

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Re:Conversations with a six-year-old on functional programming by mar77i on Tuesday May 08, 2018 @06:39AM (#17020007)

It's not surprising, it's actually a birthday paradox kind of thing.

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Re:Conversations with a six-year-old on functional programming by mpfundstein on Tuesday May 08, 2018 @01:28AM (#17019012)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small-world_experiment

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Re:Conversations with a six-year-old on functional programming by teirce on Tuesday May 08, 2018 @02:22PM (#17023317)

Sure did! Looks like you already have a reply from Ferrer :) but I will chime in to say the department is doing as well as ever. I graduated a couple years ago and was also surprised with how strong my CS background was going into industry. It's definitely served me well.

It's still a small department - I think there were <10 people in my class - but has seen an uptick in growth the last few years. They've made some really great hires recently - obviously Brent, as well as Mark. Both are great teachers and Hendrix is lucky to have them.

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Re:Conversations with a six-year-old on functional programming by wmock on Tuesday May 08, 2018 @02:10PM (#17023166)

This really makes me wish there was a way to watch his courses online! Anyone know of any available?

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