MIT Intro to Algorithms and SICP and the New Year
My goal is to complete both of these courses by May. That gives me a full 4 months. I haven't set out a complete schedule, and probably won't being that this time constraint isn't really definitive. If it takes me a little longer it isn't really that big of a deal, but I want to get them both done before we head over to Europe in June.
I have already started the SICP lectures and book. That is going well so far. The first lecture and subsequent parts of the book deal with the basics of scheme, which I already knew. Pretty quickly though they both start covering some really cool new stuff, and I am already learning a ton even though I just started. It is funny that these lectures were recorded in 1986 yet still are platinum lectures. These lectures make it rain.
Now I've had the MIT Intro to Algorithms book for about a year now. I've read chapters here and there. I think the beginning sorting ones and some others scattered throughout. I have done none of the exercises though, and haven't really understood very much of what is going on. The basic sorting stuff I get but anything more complex then that is over my head. Hopefully the lectures will help with that. The thing that worries me the most is my lack of math knowledge. I have had extremely little formal math training. I guess little non-formal math training too. I'm trying to find a decent free discrete math book to pick up while I am going though the lectures, but I'm also worried that this may be too much to handle all at once. Regardless I am going to have to buckle down and get my feet wet with discrete math before I fully understand algorithms.
The ultimate goal is to keep learning more and more about what interests me. I was not a computer science major, but rather a philosophy major. The highest math class I took was statistics. Thankfully during my employment as a programmer statistics and basic algebra is the only math that I have used. Still though I want to improve myself and keep going full speed with CS.
This month I will have officially have been working in the technology field for 10 years. I never really planned on being a programmer as a career but now I couldn't imagine being anything else. The truth is that I love programming and program even when I'm not working. I've also learned a lot in 10 years about unix(linux, bsd), programming language, markup languages, security, networking, telephony, version control, and all kinds of things.
I'm thinking of starting a book list this year too. I read quite a lot of books last year and would like to start keeping track of them. Maybe I will post here whenever I finish a book.
I'm excited for the new year and am ready to get reading/lecture watching/learning.
I have already started the SICP lectures and book. That is going well so far. The first lecture and subsequent parts of the book deal with the basics of scheme, which I already knew. Pretty quickly though they both start covering some really cool new stuff, and I am already learning a ton even though I just started. It is funny that these lectures were recorded in 1986 yet still are platinum lectures. These lectures make it rain.
Now I've had the MIT Intro to Algorithms book for about a year now. I've read chapters here and there. I think the beginning sorting ones and some others scattered throughout. I have done none of the exercises though, and haven't really understood very much of what is going on. The basic sorting stuff I get but anything more complex then that is over my head. Hopefully the lectures will help with that. The thing that worries me the most is my lack of math knowledge. I have had extremely little formal math training. I guess little non-formal math training too. I'm trying to find a decent free discrete math book to pick up while I am going though the lectures, but I'm also worried that this may be too much to handle all at once. Regardless I am going to have to buckle down and get my feet wet with discrete math before I fully understand algorithms.
The ultimate goal is to keep learning more and more about what interests me. I was not a computer science major, but rather a philosophy major. The highest math class I took was statistics. Thankfully during my employment as a programmer statistics and basic algebra is the only math that I have used. Still though I want to improve myself and keep going full speed with CS.
This month I will have officially have been working in the technology field for 10 years. I never really planned on being a programmer as a career but now I couldn't imagine being anything else. The truth is that I love programming and program even when I'm not working. I've also learned a lot in 10 years about unix(linux, bsd), programming language, markup languages, security, networking, telephony, version control, and all kinds of things.
I'm thinking of starting a book list this year too. I read quite a lot of books last year and would like to start keeping track of them. Maybe I will post here whenever I finish a book.
I'm excited for the new year and am ready to get reading/lecture watching/learning.
