That was my experience in the 80's - we were taught theory, we had to apply the theory in projects so we spent lots of time programming and getting stuff working - but we were pretty much expected to pick up particular languages, operating systems or libraries by ourselves.

The CS theory (i.e. maths based) side of it really has stuck with me - only other thing being vi controls being hardwired in my brain even though I went on to become more of an emacs fan...

I would think that the existence of a flawless predictor is probably more likely to indicate that memories of predictions, and any associated records, have been modified to make the predictor appear flawless.

About 20 years ago I quite liked the idea of becoming a CISO - the CIO I worked for at the time talked me out of it - saying that the role would largely involve being ignored then, when something inevitably did go wrong, you'd get sacked.

A Culture Mind would at least have a clear set of objectives and a plan for how to achieve them? "Bomb everything forever" doesn't seem very like the Culture at all?

About 20 years ago I can remember a German colleague describing the quality of engineering by Mercedes as a "national disgrace". I wonder what he thinks now!