Hacker News Reader

Does it really matter? I go to UC Berkeley right now, and it's not the legacy that's important to me. It's the state of the university today. The legacy is only important to me insofar as the legacy affects the current state of affairs.

View on HN

Wise words. Institutions peak and trough. People get caught up in the storied history of past institutions (myself included). Rationally, what matters is the now. If you are at an institution that was once amazing but is now a shadow of its former self, you need to understand that. Leaders of such "fallen institutions" would like to do nothing better than confound the issue and tout how great their faculty/scientists once were. In the language of my old country there is a saying "mera baap badshah tha". This translates to "my father was a king". This phrase is meant to point out one cannot rest on the laurels of the past generation.

All this said, I still have a high regard for Berkeley CS. Their systems research program/faculty is world class. Also, kinda cool that they have special parking for nobel prize winners. When I saw that, I wondered if Turing award winners could park there :-p

Reply on news.ycombinator.com