Can's Awesome Weblog

Time Crunch at Stanford

The most difficult programming assignment I have ever had at Stanford is due this Sunday. I have a 7 page Archeology page paper due Friday. I need to do two problemsets, design 2 research projects, talk to Professors about the projects, and submit funding requests for those projects. I have a huge final Algorithms group project to start and finish. I need to apply for summer internships. Oh, and I have class every day. And this is one of the lightest weeks I have had this quarter.

The amount of work that many Stanford students do every day is amazing. While we get fewer Emails and attend fewer conferences than the average Alpha geek, the actual amount of work we do is probably a lot more. It is not uncommon that I have two problemsets due the next day and have not started either. And I do not procrastinate much, there is only so much one can do in an hour. In the end, all this work somehow gets done, magically.

All of this is starting to change the life of students. Fewer and fewer people actually physically go to CS lectures, and instead choose to watch the lectures from their dorm room. This allows us to do problemsets and watch lecture at the same time, leading to increased multitasking. People are starting to take their laptops to class, and while some of them take notes, many of them program, or update their blogs. This is definitely a growing trend, and will not go away soon. Last quarter I was so busy that I once took my laptop to the movie theater and actually programmed in the theater. New technologies and increasing automatization will help us deal with this time crunch a lot better.