What Studying Computing Taught Me About Thinking
A First-Class Computing degree is not really about computers. It is about logic, abstraction, and the discipline of solving problems you have never seen before.
Isaac Paha
28 January 2026
Contents
I studied Computing and IT at The Open University. I finished with a First. And the most important thing I learned had nothing to do with code.
Abstraction Is a Superpower
The central skill of computing is abstraction — the ability to take a complex, messy reality and model it at the right level of simplicity to reason about it. A good data structure is not just a technical construct; it is an argument about what matters in a system and what can be safely ignored.
I use this constantly outside of software. When I am thinking through a business problem, I find myself asking: what is the simplest model that captures the essential dynamics here?
Algorithms Are Just Recipes for Thinking
An algorithm is a precise, finite, unambiguous set of instructions for solving a class of problem. The discipline of writing algorithms trained me to think about problems in a way I never had before.
Now when I approach any complex situation, I find myself decomposing it. What is the input? What is the desired output? What are the steps? Where can this fail?
What I Wish I Had Known
The Open University route is not the traditional path, and when I started, I had doubts. Was this real? Would employers respect it?
The answer is yes — unambiguously. But more than that: the self-directed nature of distance learning taught me something that campus students often miss. No one is going to make you learn. Learning is a choice you make every day.
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