(It seems like all the points in my list have been interpreted in many different ways here, so I apologize beforehand if any of you misinterpreted my list.)

I'm not talking about wasting years here, I'm talking about something that is possible to learn in a single course. [1] Also, I'm not talking about making a computer from scratch by building your own circuit board and make your completely own compiler to your newly designed programming language for your home made OS without any proper design. I meant simple stuff - simple compilers[2] and operative systems, because it may actually come back and help you someday - even if you're not going to make a programming language[3] or an operating system.

[1] http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7654043762021156507#

[2] http://norvig.com/lispy.html (maybe not THAT simple, but the idea is that doesn't have to take that long or be that hard.)

[3] http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2007/06/rich-programmer-food...