On Thu, Jan 19, 2017 at 2:51 AM, Evan Koblentz via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org> wrote:
Can I recommend a diversion from actually programming and learning about
the Art of Programming? Perhaps get a copy of Volume 1 of Knuth...
Ahem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Computer_Programmin g#Chapter_outline_of_published_volumes
What part of "my liberal arts background" didn't you understand? :)
I did okay in algebra, worked hard for a B in trig, passed with a C in pre-calc, got a D in calc 1, and flunked physics. But I had almost straight As in English and history. Yet somehow I remain drawn to science, engineering, and technology!
Evan, you just can't keep making excuses like this, I know this is just a hobby but, like I mentioned very early in this topic here, you have to find your motivation. The rest will fall naturally into place, no amount of book work will get you motivated. Building up a good sense of intuition helps too, in any field, that takes practice of course. But consider the reality, as you may be aware, there a tons of people out there that have to make desperate career choices in life. Because they might get laid-off from work, sometimes it's a massive job lay-off. The have to make career changes , not just search for the next job, so they can afford to live, so they don't go bankrupt. And one of the biggest careers which people transition to just so happens to be CS Those people come from all walks of life, accountants, mine workers, secretary, etc,etc,etc. You be surprised how motivated you get when you can't find a job in your current occupation. I know guys when we were stuck in the dot com lay-off, with 10's of thousands of job losses, they had to leave the entire industry, both hardware and programming, because of the job saturation. Mostly because they just couldn't up and move their families across the country, sell their house, etc, when they have little reserves. Getting a CS career has become versatile now. Mostly because there's little or few essentials to get equipped, most people have a laptop to start coding. They can start a online degree, or attend night classes, so they study while working a day job to pay bills. They might not be become expert programmers or work at CERN, but they still do an acceptable job, after several years grinding the stone, they make their boss satisfied and actually help the bottom line, that's what counts to get a paycheck. Anyone see the latest article about this topic, even Physicists are changing to CS careers these days because they are losing jobs, not because they are flunkies, these are people who are dominant in their field, but because there's many places where the work has dwindled enough to get laid-off. They joke how silicon valley will be void of coders and filled with physicists instead. But this event has some parallels to the dawn of the industry, physicists are what started this computer industry[and others]. Mauchly was a physicist and countless others from the past 100+yrs. It's a very interesting read, one of the reasons is since the discovery of higgs boson has proven many of their theories to be correct, so the gap of uncertainty in the current universe has been shrinking, There amount of significant problems to solve has been shrinking, until a new and significant theory emerges, such as did the higgs boson, and that was 50yrs ago. Some such as the mysterious behind dark matter or dark energy still doesn't qualify enough to build a large project team, thus more employment. So it just goes to show you that life is still like a box of chocolates. https://www.wired.com/2017/01/move-coders-physicists-will-soon-rule-silicon-... Dan