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I had one of his classes. He really knows his stuff. Spoke fast, no filler, and had an answer prepared for any question related to programming language theory. I felt a little bad though, because a lot of the material went over everyone's head (it was a required course for CS majors).

He's also a certified pilot.

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I wonder why so many very technical people are pilots.

As a 100 hour, thrice restarted student pilot it is the perfect mix of physical, mental, math and procedures. The actual flying of small aircraft is physical coordination and task saturation at times. Lots of procedures and optimizations. The navigation, especially the dying radio navigation (with paper charts, too) and flight calculators is lots of geography and math and tools.

Drumming is some of that but other than motorcycles I've not found anything else that comes close to flying. I've never tried sailing but maybe that too?

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