31–40 of 44 posts
It showed me that I could build and program things without learning C++ (or Objective C) and from more of the visual side, not just terminal “hello world” apps.
I’ve started a channel where I talk about ways I failed to learn programming and how I eventually learned programming later in life: Why I failed at learning to code https://youtu.be/eIOuog3QGHc
MITx had a profound impact on my life when the platform launched in 2011. Ditto edX.org in 2012. At the time, I was a college dropout. My job history looked like: self-employed, Starbucks, and a bunch of catering per diem gigs. I didn't know what a "software engineer" did, although I had a vague desire to make video games (but no idea how). I was technical enough to install WordPress with Cpanel and resell hosting to…
The millions of people who took a similar route and didn't become millionaires would like to point out that this story is exceptional, as in well above average, extraordinary and very uncommon. Congrats on thus far making the most of your life and abilities, though.
https://joeldare.com/how-to-lose-money-with-25-years-of-fail...
"Learning How to Learn" BY Dr. Barbara Oakley really changed my perspective towards learning in my late 20s. I was starting to feel (of my own accord) that I was starting to lose/had already lost the cognitive function needed to learn as intensely as I had during my undergrad years. This course flipped that idea on its head, and gave me the tools and mental model to pick up learning new (and hard) things again. Stron…
Yeah. I liked that course too. I heard it mentioned on the radio and it was a pretty short course if I remember correctly. The only thing I really remember from it is "Pomodoro is Cool" and "If you're stuck on something mental, go take a walk for several minutes."
This experience taugh me the ways of systems programming without the perils of C (that I would discover later), while setting a baseline of what to expect from a programming language environment.
I was studying for my PhD in Physics at the time and didn’t know what to do with myself with graduation only a year or so away. I was fascinated by the whole machine learning topic and got me interested in learning more - looking back it was the gateway to my data scientist career, which I’m still doing 8 years and 3 countries later.
I think I got quite lucky that this was around the time that data science was becoming a hot topic in industry, but there were very few qualifications in it (sorry statisticians) so people like me with STEM PhDs and relatively little training could go straight into a job from graduation (with varying results)
Go ahead and down-vote me now, I'm going to criticize academia here. The question was "which courses have had the greatest impact on you?" and not "which courses have had the greatest POSITIVE impact on you?" I am sad to say my junior year honors literature course had the most impact on my career. One of the assignments was an analysis of one or two Matthew Arnold works (Matthew Arnold's a 19th century poet & critic…
Since this prof was accusing you of plagiarism I think you could have appealed this and taken the case to your department’s head of the dean, why didn’t you do that? I have a feeling that if you articulated your case well enough the prof would have eventually dropped the issue. I have to say, this seems like it’s mostly on you not defending yourself. Sure the professor was wrong and being an ignorant ass but you shou…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The millions of people who took a similar route and didn't become millionaires would like to point out that this story is exceptional, as in well above average, extraordinary and very uncommon. Congrats on thus far making the most of your life and abilities, though.
Ah, yes. My journey has not ended in me being a millionaire, but I do okay. https://joeldare.com/how-to-lose-money-with-25-years-of-fail...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What impact did it have on you. How did you change afterwards?
It made me realize there are ways for capitalism to be “ethical”, that not all banks are trying to make a profit at all costs and that there are investors that track and optimize for other metrics besides monetary returns, e. g., community impact.