Three weeks ago I started coursera’s “Introduction to Systematic Program Design” course. The name seems compelling – someone has found a way to develop software in a systematic way! Finally!!!
But after three weeks in the course, learning the “Beginning Student” programming language (something similar to Lisp), I am disappointed. Not only is the course shallow (for now), while it teaches how to systematically create software elements, I still can’t see the point in spending my time in the course. I asked a question in the forums, regarding the validity of the methodology proposed by the professor of the course (empirical evidence, anectotal evidence, something!)… but sadly I didn’t get an answer.
It is hard for me to stop doing something I started without finishing (this is the only reason I finished reading this book). But in this case I think the time has come to close the book and simply leave it where it stands. Not only because I don’t think it is worth my time – but because I have better things to do – this week is the first week of the Startup Engineering course! So bye bye systematic program design. I won’t say I’ll miss you. But I have a Startup to build 🙂
