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Why do these people even go to uni when its such a waste of time. I went to uni for a year and learned absolutely nothing because it was all so incredibly basic that its only useful if you don't know how to learn on your own.

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Some people use the university not only as an opportunity to learn but to nurture friendships and connections that last for life. You are only young once, why you have to hurry to jump into the rat race? Especially someone whose identity is so tied with their ability to "be a good programmer" it might be a great chance to digest new perspectives towards life. Also if the bachelor level courses felt too easy you should probably haven take some master's level stuff.

The most annoying type of people in CS studies I encountered were those who thought they "knew it all" yet in fact, in the large scale, they knew very little. And whatever knowledge they had they often communicated poorly, perhaps disparaging others for not knowing what they did.

I wasn't aware that there was any way to skip the basic stuff.

If you followed only the first year then yes, you've wasted your time. Things start to get interesting in the years after that.

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