You can always learn pure theory later on for free or very cheap from books.
And above all, you can always learn software engineering later on for free, because the programming community is so much more open than any other so far, notably e.g. with Stack Overflow and GitHub, see also: Section "Ciro Santilli's Open Source Enlightenment". Ciro Santilli is trying to change that with OurBigBook.com, but don't hold your breath. But it is increasingly hard to understand why there isn't an university that forces teachers to publish all their notes and lecture videos (which should be mandatorily recorded) with a Creative Commons License, and then let anyone take whichever exams they want for a small fee or for free.
Actually, there is a good chance you will learn to program, like it or not, because chances are that you won't be able to find as decent a job doing anything else.
But there is one thing you cannot learn for free: laboratory work. Laboratory work is just too expensive to carry out outside of an institution.
Basically, if you don't do laboratory work in undergrad, you will very likely never be able to do so in your entire life.
Because laboratories are so rare and expensive, it is laboratories that put you in the best most unfair position at creating world changing deep tech startups, which is why when in doubt, choose the course that has the most experimental work. Yes, you won't be able to achieve those insanely concentrated equities of the early-Internet, as you will need more venture capital to run your company, but those days are over now, deal with it.
Nobel disease Updated 2025-09-11
The Eighth Day of Creation has a related quote:
In a conversation a few weeks earlier at the faculty club of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a couple of biologists had speculated whether Pauling, whose recent popular book on the benefits to health and sanity of massive doses of vitamin C was stacked in display near the entrance of the M.I.T. bookstore, was showing signs of what one of the men called "old scientist's disease" - which they defined as what happens to great men when they grow beyond the psychological reach of the salutary system by which scientists blow the whistle on one another's mistakes.
Video 1.
The Nobel Prize Winners With Crazy Theories by Qxir
. Source.
MRS degree Updated 2025-07-16
After learning this term, Ciro Santilli finally understood that his actual major was MR, and not bullshit like applied mathematics or control theory.
Instrumentation basically means adding loggers/print statements to certain points of interest of your hardware/software.
Instrumentation tends to slow execution down a bit, but way less than emulation.
The downside is that if the instrumentation does not provide you the data you need to debug, there's not much you can do, you will need to modify it, i.e. you don't get full visibility from instrumention.
This is unlike emulation that provides full observability.
Caetano Veloso Updated 2025-07-16
Within the The Holy Trinity of popular Brazilian music, Caetano has the most New Age religious feel to him. He is also perhaps the most varied of the trinity however, also covering heavier topics at times.
Chico Buarque Updated 2025-07-16
Within the The Holy Trinity of popular Brazilian music, Chico tends to approach the more down to Earth and heavy topics.
Gilberto Gil Updated 2025-07-16
Gilberto is definitely the most psychedelic/tribal one of the The Holy Trinity of popular Brazilian music, though he also has a boyish quality to his soul.
He is also perhaps the one that impresses Ciro Santilli the most, at times he can't help but feel:
OMG how the hell did he come up with that?!
Figure 2.
Gilberto Gil in the cover of his 1977 album Refavela
. Source.
Mamonas Assassinas Updated 2025-07-16
This incredibly foul mouthed band was incredibly funny.
Ciro Santilli was a bit young to understand the songs at the time, but the older boys were singing them, and he sang along. So maybe there is a nostalgia factor in play.
But it can't be just that. They are just too funny and brutal, even when Ciro re-listens to it as of 2020.
Many Brazilian religious cranks in were really happy when their plane crashed and killed all of them in 1996.
Best songs:
Kelvin Updated 2025-07-16
Thermometer Updated 2025-07-16
How the telephone works Updated 2025-07-16
Video 1.
Phone Intercom by Make (2014)
Source. This video illustrates will the incredible simplicity of the connection of a telephone system. Compare that to the relative complexity of wireless communication, which requires modulation.
Video 2.
Making a Microphone Work with an Oscilloscope by Environmental Radiation LLC (2012)
Source. Not the most detailed setup, but good.

There are unlisted articles, also show them or only show them.