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thedeadhaji
39472 Posts
In college, we're assigned a mountain of reading, even in the science and engineering courses. Said reading material is usually nonessential, and it's quite possible to get through class without spending too much time on them, if at all. After all, we're graded by our assignments and exams, not the number of pages we've read. But as with any subject, skimping on the reading will translate to an inferior learning experience.
One such course for me was COS217, the C systems programming course. There were several recommended textbooks at the bookstore [1]; of course, I read virtually none of them, pressured by the need to complete essential tasks for both this class and others. As with most anything, not being able to devote one's full attention to the subject proved to be inefficient. I passed the course with marginally acceptable grades, and was mildly traumatized by the experience. It would be the last CS course I would take in my life [2].
Fast forward to 2012, seven and a half years after my last CS course. I find myself in the high tech sector, as I had always intended, but woefully deficient in many of the technical areas that I now wish I had taken the time to master. I perform my duties well, but well isn't good enough for my purposes and aspirations. I feel a need to understand the basics and the fundamentals; a desire that I haven't felt for quite a few years now.
I must shamefully admit that for much of my academic life, my so called learning was driven by a duty to learn rather than a desire to learn. But now that I don't have to learn, I find myself grasping at the first threads of my desire to learn for the first time in perhaps over a decade.
Seven and a half years later, I am reading the books that I never read in college [1]. This blog was written in emacs, an editor that I simply couldn't stand using back in the Fall of 2004 [3].
Thing are changing for me, slowly, surely, hopefully for the better.
[1] The Practice of Programming, The UNIX Programming Environment, and Programming with GNU Software
[2] I should mention that our Lecturer, Bob Dondero, is a fantastic teacher who is truly the anchor of CS instruction in the department.
[3] I had previously used TextWrangler for my blogging purposes. I must say though, the Mac Keyboard isn't particularly conducive to emacs shortcuts, so I think I'll have to remap them soon.
Crossposted from my main blog
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I would recommend you look at what Scott Young is doing in his MIT challenge. He uses free online resources provided by MIT that include full lectures, class notes, homework problems/solutions, and exam problems/solutions to complete an undergraduate Computer Science degree over the span of 12 months. Of course he is not actually enrolled in MIT, but since the material is free and legal to be used by the general public you can still learn the information from the best professors in the world. He also has some information on how you can learn faster and more effectively, which I personally employ as I'm a current student at a University.
Good luck!
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<3 COS217. Bob Dondero is indeed a fantastic teacher. I really loved the class though (it's what made me confirm my desire to be a CS major).
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I didn't realize that I love learning until I dropped out of high school in 11th grade, got my GED, started college, and was on break from college.
Now learning is my favorite thing to do, I consider learning a virtue (and one of the highest), and I think having a lot more people with a stronger desire to learn is the key (at least the first step) to solving most world problems. And most little problems too.
Somehow my grandfather and I got on this topic the other week. I always knew he was smart (with plenty of accomplishments to back it up), but he was never a touchy-feely people person kinda guy, so it was difficult to connect with him for the past two decades. Without knowing how I feel about this stuff, he came out and said something like "people would have a lot less problems if they just tried to learn more, people are too ignorant for their own good". From where I live this was a serious breath of fresh air, and have been / am very happy to be his grandson knowing we share that view.
Perhaps ambition itself is more important than a desire to learn when you "have to" be learning. But learning in general is very rewarding: not only for accomplishing things, but also for self-enrichment... even as an entertaining pass time. It's just good. Very little is more fulfilling than having a desire to learn and actually doing it.
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I read mathematics at university I found that reading some interesting material on a subject definitely helped me during examinations, even if it wasn't directly related. I did find the standard syllabus boring, but the extra reading allowed me to enjoy my course at lot more, especially as I was allowed to "bug" lectures out of class about these not so related material.
I think this also has to do that when you learn by yourself you are free to to choose what you read and any follow ups which you find interesting. You pick and choose what you like.
University tuition is a lot more rigid than that and I guess it has to be, I wouldn't want a surgeon to have skipped any of the reading on making incisions or stitching wounds. But I guess that gives you the feeling that it is a chore, which is never good while doing anything.
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vim >> emacs, especially if the keyboard's meta key layout is unfriendly.
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On April 13 2012 02:15 Barrin wrote: Now learning is my favorite thing to do, I consider learning a virtue (and one of the highest), and I think having a lot more people with a stronger desire to learn is the key (at least the first step) to solving most world problems. And most little problems too.
My friend, I had these exact same thoughts a million times before and am happy that I'm not alone with them.
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I come from the school of thought that says that one should major in what one enjoys rather than what is practical in college. There are good and bad things about this approach; the most obvious one is that what you enjoy is more often than not completely impractical, but on the other hand it makes it easy to cultivate a love for the subject. All my readings are completely extraneous for the most part in my major, with a good portion of them also happening to be fairly repetitive, but I make it a point to do all of them (at least those that do not send me to sleep, e.g. entire dissertations on how to calculate historical chronologies) simply because I do enjoy them. Sure, I kinda wish I could be playing War3 or writing or reading other books at the same time, but if you can sit down daily and just get used to doing assigned readings, it's surprisingly easy to find them interesting/fun, and you develop a tolerance for dry, academic writing.
That said, I don't do my readings for my minor classes (Stat minor here). I also find philosophers to be Bad Writers in general.
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Should put an rss feed for your blog, some don't like using twitter in that way
Posting this because I'm genuinely interested in reading these
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thedeadhaji
39472 Posts
On April 13 2012 01:12 tryummm wrote: I would recommend you look at what Scott Young is doing in his MIT challenge. He uses free online resources provided by MIT that include full lectures, class notes, homework problems/solutions, and exam problems/solutions to complete an undergraduate Computer Science degree over the span of 12 months. Of course he is not actually enrolled in MIT, but since the material is free and legal to be used by the general public you can still learn the information from the best professors in the world. He also has some information on how you can learn faster and more effectively, which I personally employ as I'm a current student at a University.
Good luck!
The major beef I have with MIT Open Courseware, is that a lot of the courses I'm interested in are incomplete
On April 13 2012 02:10 JDub wrote: <3 COS217. Bob Dondero is indeed a fantastic teacher. I really loved the class though (it's what made me confirm my desire to be a CS major).
One of the best teachers I've ever had I wish I had allotted my time across courses better during my undergrad
On April 13 2012 02:15 Barrin wrote: Somehow my grandfather and I got on this topic the other week. I always knew he was smart (with plenty of accomplishments to back it up), but he was never a touchy-feely people person kinda guy, so it was difficult to connect with him for the past two decades. Without knowing how I feel about this stuff, he came out and said something like "people would have a lot less problems if they just tried to learn more, people are too ignorant for their own good". From where I live this was a serious breath of fresh air, and have been / am very happy to be his grandson knowing we share that view. .
<3
On April 13 2012 03:48 babylon wrote:I come from the school of thought that says that one should major in what one enjoys rather than what is practical in college. There are good and bad things about this approach; the most obvious one is that what you enjoy is more often than not completely impractical, but on the other hand it makes it easy to cultivate a love for the subject. All my readings are completely extraneous for the most part in my major, with a good portion of them also happening to be fairly repetitive, but I make it a point to do all of them (at least those that do not send me to sleep, e.g. entire dissertations on how to calculate historical chronologies) simply because I do enjoy them. Sure, I kinda wish I could be playing War3 or writing or reading other books at the same time, but if you can sit down daily and just get used to doing assigned readings, it's surprisingly easy to find them interesting/fun, and you develop a tolerance for dry, academic writing. That said, I don't do my readings for my minor classes (Stat minor here). I also find philosophers to be Bad Writers in general.
We pay so much money for college, I'd actually advise the opposite. Major in a field in which you want to work in, and minor in what you're interested in.
On April 13 2012 04:02 andeh wrote: Should put an rss feed for your blog, some don't like using twitter in that way
Posting this because I'm genuinely interested in reading these
Hmm I'll try to fix it... I'll pm you when I do. (it's kind of broken b/c my Japanese blog's rss seems to override everything)
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