Curriculum gap Memes

The classic educational progression: learn to drive an automatic in class, practice with a manual transmission for homework, then take your exam in the cockpit of a Boeing 747. Computer science degrees in a nutshell. "Here's how variables work" on Monday, "implement a neural network from scratch" by Friday, and "invert a binary tree while the building is on fire" during finals week.

Ah, the classic academic bait-and-switch. Class: "Here's how to shift an automatic car." Homework: "Now try this manual transmission." Exams: "Pilot this entire spacecraft with no prior training and save humanity." Ten years into my career and I'm still waiting for someone to explain why I needed to implement a red-black tree from scratch when in reality I just Google "how to center a div" every other day.