It's well established that practical project work is what works best at producing tangible results, and most institutions that aim to produce the best programmers focus on that.

I can understand this is not the approach preferred by academic types which is a strong community on hackernews.

Most people are more motivated to understand the theory because it helps them solve a practical problem, rather than theory for the sake of theory.

I thought this thread was about computer science. Working on a programming project is related to computer science in the same way that welding together a shelf is related to mechanical engineering.

Being "handy" around the house (or even more advanced tinkering) and a mechanical engineering degree--maybe especially from a good school--are absolutely not the same thing.

Totally agree! And being able to whip together a webapp for your church is absolutely not the same thing as computer science.

Computer scientists often program but not all programmers are computer scientists.

An elitist view disconnected from reality.

Even something like game theory was only developed and earned nobel prizes because of its applications to making money in finance.