Brian W. Kernigan on programming:
"Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it."
CONTACT
For general research and professional inquiries, email away. I have advice for a few specific categories (e.g. for prospective students or tutors) below.
jpolitz@ucsd.edu
joe.politz@gmail.comSynchronously
My office is CSE 3206 in EBU3B.
My Zoom information is at https://jpolitz.github.io/contact/zoom.txt
I have Zoom office hours open to anyone at UCSD most weeks. Check the calendar on this page for details: UCSD CSE faculty advising If you need to schedule a synchronous meeting, contact me via email for an appointment.Postal mail
9500 Gilman Dr., MC 0404
La Jolla, CA 92093Phone
Please email first. If you are a student and have to provide a phone number on a form related to a recommendation letter, use (858) 534-8872.Social media
I actively use Twitter as @joepolitz. I am @joepolitz@types.pl on Mastodon but don't use it much yet.
Other social media accounts in my name are either placeholders that I don't actively monitor, or aren't controlled by me.Referring to me
I use “Joe Gibbs Politz” as my publishing/professional name. Politz is my last name/family name.
My preference is that you call me “Joe”, including if you're a student. If you prefer to use a title, any combination of “Dr.”, “Professor”, “Joe,” and “Politz” is fine.
I use male pronouns (he/him/his).
Email away and I'll do my best to respond. If you find yourself spending a lot of time writing or figuring out the tone for you message, here's some useful advice on communicating (with me) via email: How to email
Use the course web site and course message board (e.g. Piazza, Campuswire), unless you have an academic accommodation or other specific concern that cannot be handled by a TA. In that case, please do email me!
If you email me a routine question about course content, I will ask you to put it on the message board. A TA or tutor will likely be able to answer more quickly than I can, and even if they can't, I'll process the message board about as quickly as email.
If you're interested in working on Pyret, using it and reporting issues is a great way to contribute. If you want to really get my attention, tackle one of the good first issues for code.pyret.org or the language.
If you have a specific idea spurred by coursework or your own research directions, feel free to email or come by office hours to chat.
If your only contact with me is through taking an undergraduate course, and we've never had a conversation longer than a few minutes, I will likely say “no” to writing you a letter for PhD programs. After writing a lot of these, I've decided that they're not providing much value, because I can't say anything that isn't said reasonably well by your transcript. If you just need a short acknowledgement that you're in my class, I'm happy to do it, but beyond that I'll usually decline – certainly PhD program letters require that I know more about you for them to be useful.
If we've worked together outside of classes at all and I can give relevant comments on your experience, ask away! When you request a letter, include:
If the letter is for a PhD program, read this for some perspective on the letter-writing process from the faculty perspective: https://cs.brown.edu/~sk/Memos/Grad-School-Recos/. Practice concise writing, and don't write an entire draft of a letter. Your writeup of the above items shouldn't take up more space than the instructions themselves do.
Please do not get me gifts related to letter writing. Seriously! That's not a reverse-psychology way to ask you to get me a gift! Don't do it, please. The best and only gift I want is you going on to be successful in what you want to do.