Live data from Hacker News

Teach Yourself Computer Science

teachyourselfcs.com

91–100 of 273 posts

Re: Teach Yourself Computer Science

#92
post #21

Has anyone ever found a guide of similar format and quality for data science? I would love to find a similar collection of resources for learning data science fundamentals (math, statistics, programming, etc.)

https://online-learning.harvard.edu/subject/data-science

Re: Teach Yourself Computer Science

#93
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just finished the distributed systems section of teachyourselfcs and I now have a solid understanding of a lot of concepts I previously only shallowly understood. When I started learning, the recommended textbook was Distributed systems: Principles and Paradigms (the new recommendation is Designing Data-Intensive Applications) and the recommended course was MIT 6.824. 6.824 is the first online course that I have co…

How long did it take you to complete it on your own, including the exercises?

For the course I would estimate 120-180 hours spread over 6 weeks.

I read the textbook over a couple of months, but I couldn't give you a good estimate in hours.

Re: Teach Yourself Computer Science

#94

Are you thinking or debating if getting a deeper understanding of CS will help you or your career? I am thinking of the same. Even though I have a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Computer Science, it has been 14 years that I actually used any of it. I regret it sometimes since I know what it is to know how things work underneath the high level languages (PHP, JavaScript and Python for me). Lately I have started taking m…

Of course everyone should learn because otherwise they will be left behind with pay or life in general. Just setting it up in a negative way should not be there like "type 1 vs type 2". There is much more to be achieved when you are nice to people and learn to cooperate in a helpful way than when you are master of algorithms and low level operating system details.

Re: Teach Yourself Computer Science

#95
post #32

Has anyone here learned a subject by going through one of these "teach yourself" lists? I've learned most of what I know about computers on my own, but it wasn't from following a list of textbooks. And when I've tried to follow a course like this for other subjects, despite my initial interest, I've found myself unable to make it through more than a couple chapters of the first textbook before running out of steam. B…

Having learned programming on my own and after spending some time doing it at work, I can now look at these books and say: Ok, these do make sense now and it's engaging to read them whilst a few years ago it was all too abstract and felt 'somewhere out there'.

Re: Teach Yourself Computer Science

#96
post #32

Has anyone here learned a subject by going through one of these "teach yourself" lists? I've learned most of what I know about computers on my own, but it wasn't from following a list of textbooks. And when I've tried to follow a course like this for other subjects, despite my initial interest, I've found myself unable to make it through more than a couple chapters of the first textbook before running out of steam. B…

When I learn something to the point I can consider it 'learned' it is never from one source or one guide. It's information taken at the relevant time in my learning journey from any search.

Re: Teach Yourself Computer Science

#97
post #63

I like to compare CS to medicine. Most topics of it aren't difficult to understand, but overall it's just a lot of information. If you want to get a comprehensive CS-education, you have to accept that it takes years of studying, learning and practise.

I wonder if there's any TeachYourself Medicine resources?

Re: Teach Yourself Computer Science

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The pressure comes from everywhere: - Current employer: "Your salary is already good for someone without a bachelor's degree" - Current employer: "We're sorry but this promotion requires a bachelor's degree" - Future employer: "We're sorry but we hired someone with a bachelor's degree for this job" - Date: "You don't have a bachelor's degree?" - Friends: "You're the only one without a bachelor's degree" - Meetup: "Wh…

I have a hard time believing that an employer ever cared about my degree in CS from 24 years ago from a no name state college when they decided to hire me. I’m sure my classes in COBOL,FORTRAN, and data structures in Pascal made any difference. Well, I did take a course in C and 16 bit x86 assembly.

It was different times back then I'd argue, you could basically do 5+5 in a shell and get hired and shipped of to New York, but they where also forced to be constrained enough by the hardware to become clever after getting the job.

2018 Apple had 20 million registered developers and it has only increased since then.

It's still very easy to become a developer right now (sambo found it to be the easiest path forward for example, from no experience at all), but the trend is quite scary. I have frankly no idea how it look when I turn 60.

Re: Teach Yourself Computer Science

#99
Is this computer science books? Seems like great computer engineering books but I have only read a few of the suggested ones.

Is there any math or science in those books (aka, could I write a paper from it)?

Anyone that have read them that care to chip in?

Re: Teach Yourself Computer Science

#100
post #58
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember telling people to read "The Python Tutorial" on python.org , if they wanted to write Python. It takes a few hours for an experienced programer, and a couple of days for a beginner. People had difficulty starting.

A beginner might have trouble assimilating this information - too few examples, not enough entry level drilling on data types, operators, flow control and functions. For example they might forget to put quotes around a string or not know how to use two for loops, one inside the other, even if they know how to use one in isolation. It's hard to grok how to compose things even if the student saw how to use them in isol…

When I started programming (with Python) I remember how the modulo operator was introduced, without any further information. I found it quite confusing, since I didn't know what modulo meant (that could be solved with googling) but more important, how it was useful. When you come from a CS perspective, it's completly clear on how you can use it and why it is essential for some computing tasks, but for a non-CS beginner that can be much more obscure.
Post reply on HN