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A guide for people who want to self-study the basics of computer science

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Re: A guide for people who want to self-study the basics of computer science

#61

Post by hawk_ »

yt-sdb wrote: post #41
gareve wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if you would have to do it again, would you change something on your methodology? I assume there were some unnecessary time sinks here & there

I don't think so. My problem was that I had a weak grasp of many basics concepts, and more critically I did not know in which areas I was weak. So while it's easy ex post to say "I could skip such and such section", it would have been impossible to make this judgment ex ante. And in fact, I think a failure mode many people make is trying to predict which things they already know and then skipping those. This allows f…

I have been seeing more and more usage of 'ex post' and 'ex ante' lately. What do they convey that isn't conveyed by 'after' and 'before'?

Re: A guide for people who want to self-study the basics of computer science

#62

Post by waboremo »

voz_ wrote: post #53
LocalH wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then stop focusing on trying to get him to code, and focus on his music, his chess, his YouTube videos ( especially if he has aspiration to be a content creator rather than a passive consumer), and his academics. Maybe related to one of those things, you could gently try to build a bridge between them and coding. However, don't force it . If you force it, you're essentially going to be raising someone who hates progr…

This is good advice if you live in a Hollywood movie fantasy, or are insanely rich. Otherwise this is bad advice. A parents job is to steer their kids not into superficial happiness found through whatever interested them at 16, but to actual long term happiness achieved through fulfillment, accomplishment, stability, and belonging. If I ignored CS pushed by my father to focus on whatever interested me at 16 (pot, gir…

I believe you interpreted their comment as a sort of let them drown in hedonism moment, but from what I'm getting it's really just encouraging giving your kid space to find the joy themselves. You can encourage new forms or methods to see if it'll stick but you still have to let them be their own person. Forcing anything will just make your kid resent that entirely, and for a lot of parents they don't even realize this resentment of [subject/task/etc] also turned into a resentment of the parent.

Also I think you're too pessimistic about your past potential. You could have made a great musician, esports pro, hell there are even some successful marijuana companies now! I don't say this to stoke the flames of what ifs, but instead to highlight that it wasn't exactly your father's push for CS that is the only reason for your success. You should absolutely take some responsibility for committing and be proud of that, of course you can definitely attribute your understanding of why commitment is important to your father if that holds true!

Now that's good advice, teach your kids the importance of integral foundations like commitment, don't obsess over which specific field it is.

Re: A guide for people who want to self-study the basics of computer science

#63

Post by jacksnipe »

gpt5 wrote: post #58
gareve wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if you would have to do it again, would you change something on your methodology? I assume there were some unnecessary time sinks here & there

If you, or someone else is seriously considering learning math from the basic at a high level, I’d recommend picking up “art of problem solving, pre-algebra” book, and walking up from there. These sets of books are universally considered to be among the best math education resources by mathematicians and others, and they start from the very basic (such as the number line and basic operations), but without the need of…

I think the TAOPS curriculum would be incredibly challenging for somebody who has actively incorrect intuitions about math.

Re: A guide for people who want to self-study the basics of computer science

#64

Post by timidiceball »

hawk_ wrote: post #61
yt-sdb wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think so. My problem was that I had a weak grasp of many basics concepts, and more critically I did not know in which areas I was weak. So while it's easy ex post to say "I could skip such and such section", it would have been impossible to make this judgment ex ante. And in fact, I think a failure mode many people make is trying to predict which things they already know and then skipping those. This allows f…

I have been seeing more and more usage of 'ex post' and 'ex ante' lately. What do they convey that isn't conveyed by 'after' and 'before'?

it conveys that you know what ex post and ex ante mean

Re: A guide for people who want to self-study the basics of computer science

#65

Post by xwowsersx »

hahhahanananana wrote: post #6

> High School Mathematics Whenever I try to catch up with maths (in Khan Academy and elsewhere), I always end up in an awkward state where I keep recursively researching less and less advanced subjects because of gaps of various sizes in my fundamental knowledge. It's incredibly demotivating.

Another resource I wanted to mention here is OpenStax. Specifically, their Prealgebra book: https://openstax.org/details/books/prealgebra-2e it's a fully online-native book format with exercises, etc.

Re: A guide for people who want to self-study the basics of computer science

#66

Post by imranq »

I had a student who was basically performing at a 6th grade math level despite being in 11th grade. I told that student to go through Khan Academy starting from Pre-K all the way to 12th grade and don't continue unless they achieved mastery. That student went from the C math student, to ultimately scoring a perfect score on the SAT II Math. So I highly recommend everyone start for the absolute basics, even if it feels like a blow to the ego

Re: A guide for people who want to self-study the basics of computer science

#67

Post by kandel »

hcks wrote: post #4

That’s just the usual memes. Is this about « computer science » ? Then why isn’t there anything logic, algorithms, Turing machines, etc.. Is this « dev »? Then what’s the point of discrete maths?

year 1 CS in my university is

:intro to CS (simple JAVA and simple coding) :linear algebra 1 :introduction to logic (simple set theory(though the course got comparatively deep and proved induction as well as defined relations rather throughouly. most students failed.) :Digital systems (basic digital logic)

semester 2 is: :data structures :linear algebra 2 :infitisimal math 1 :practical course on usages of math :combinatorics\basic discrete math (No generator functions or the like. Basic counting, basic graph theory, basic discrete probability)

This is for a university that has a technical approach to CS. It's not considered very mathematical, so view it as a sign that calc1/2 and linear algebra 1/2 is needed. they are fun courses! Go learn the math courses with the mathematicians if you've felt a connection to math, there is a definite change in the feelings of the class. It's the "same" material but in one class you will think like a mathematician and in the other like an engineer.

Re: A guide for people who want to self-study the basics of computer science

#68

Post by jhardy54 »

timidiceball wrote: post #64
hawk_ wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been seeing more and more usage of 'ex post' and 'ex ante' lately. What do they convey that isn't conveyed by 'after' and 'before'?

it conveys that you know what ex post and ex ante mean

Or, quite often, conveys that you don’t know what they mean.

Re: A guide for people who want to self-study the basics of computer science

#69

Post by status200 »

yt-sdb wrote: post #22
hahhahanananana wrote: post #6

> High School Mathematics Whenever I try to catch up with maths (in Khan Academy and elsewhere), I always end up in an awkward state where I keep recursively researching less and less advanced subjects because of gaps of various sizes in my fundamental knowledge. It's incredibly demotivating.

Maybe 5 years ago, I was in a similar place. I had a particularly embarrassing moment at work when it clicked that I just... didn't know the basics. I was, to use an overused term, "mathematically immature". So I made a commitment: I decided I would work through Khan Academy math for 1-hour a day for 1 year. I started with pre-K [1] (specifically counting) and watched every video and did every single exercise in orde…

This is inline with a Zen practice called "beginner's mind", and is so useful in many areas, thank you for this inspiration.

Re: A guide for people who want to self-study the basics of computer science

#70

Post by yt-sdb »

hawk_ wrote: post #61
yt-sdb wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think so. My problem was that I had a weak grasp of many basics concepts, and more critically I did not know in which areas I was weak. So while it's easy ex post to say "I could skip such and such section", it would have been impossible to make this judgment ex ante. And in fact, I think a failure mode many people make is trying to predict which things they already know and then skipping those. This allows f…

I have been seeing more and more usage of 'ex post' and 'ex ante' lately. What do they convey that isn't conveyed by 'after' and 'before'?

"Before" and "after" are generic terms. A car might stop before the crosswalk (space). You might eat dinner after work (time). But "ex ante" and "ex post" specify a relationship to an (random) event or to specific information. For example, a data scientist might compute a quantity "ex ante". This means that the quantity was estimated using only forecast data. No historical data was used. It would not make sense, however, to say that a car stops ex ante the crosswalk.

I could have easily said "afterwards" and "beforehand", but I like "ex post" and "ex ante" when referring to before/after having access to specific information.

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