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A CS degree is just a collection of topics that you study. Look up the topics, find books, articles, etc on the topics, find a mentor, study the topics, "get de

A CS degree is just a collection of topics that you study. Look up the topics, find books, articles, etc on the topics, find a mentor, study the topics, "get degree". The only thing missing are metrics but the metrics aren't the point. My local university has a book store and the books per course are all there so if I wanted to I could pick up all the books for a CS degree and read um. I could find a list of profs too and I bet if I emailed some I could find one that might talk back. There's all kinds of ways to go about this :)

varrock 7y ago
I agree, and I've found great resources like TeachYourSelfCS[0] and OSSU[1] to name a few, but there are so many options out there that I am overwhelmed. Reading reviews doesn't help, either. I think I need to commit to one that will get the job done and get me thinking from a CS perspective. Also, I want to be a great software engineer. I've heard arguments that a CS degree doesn't equate to software engineering in a practical sense. [0] https://teachyourselfcs.com/ https://teachyourselfcs.com/ [1] https://github.com/ossu/computer-science https://github.com/ossu/computer-science
- ppseafield 7y ago
  I was a self-taught dev for nearly a decade. Then I got the opportunity to go back for the CS degree. Probably the biggest thing that I got out of it was that I had to work on some things I almost never would have done myself (for me, my low level C/Linux code and networking classes), and it expanded my overall understanding of computers a bit. You can do that yourself, but you have to do it yourself. :)
- drbojingle 7y ago
  This is a psychological phenomenon called choice paralysis. My advice: get a mentor. Someone who knows the industry and can remove bad options. OR. Just pick one and forget about it. Personally my favorite approach a Bring your own idea approach, where you come up with something you want to build and then figure out how to build it, rather than focusing on what's hot or best or correct. You can stripe down CS and focus only on the product development necessary to achieve a release. Gets you coding, which is a good first step in to CS and a better first step in to the industry (CS != business. Overlaps but ain't the same.) I'm teaching my girlfriend to code and right now she's on the basics: html, and css. She had no idea what to build so I got her to start working on a dictionary of all the things she's learning (essentially she's taking her notes on html, in html). Very recursive and reinforces the knowledge, but (if they're curious) it would naturally segway into "how do I make it look pretty" (which it did) and we're continuing from there.
reikonomusha 7y ago
Metrics give you feedback on your level of mastery.
- drbojingle 7y ago
  Yes but they're not the goal.
- cgriswald 7y ago
  > Metrics give you feedback on your level of mastery. Metrics can give you feedback on your level of mastery, but this varies wildly with whoever is providing the feedback.
- uwuhn 7y ago
  So do massive FAANG offers.

varrock 7y ago

I agree, and I've found great resources like TeachYourSelfCS[0] and OSSU[1] to name a few, but there are so many options out there that I am overwhelmed. Reading reviews doesn't help, either. I think I need to commit to one that will get the job done and get me thinking from a CS perspective. Also, I want to be a great software engineer. I've heard arguments that a CS degree doesn't equate to software engineering in a practical sense. [0] https://teachyourselfcs.com/ https://teachyourselfcs.com/ [1] https://github.com/ossu/computer-science https://github.com/ossu/computer-science

ppseafield 7y ago
I was a self-taught dev for nearly a decade. Then I got the opportunity to go back for the CS degree. Probably the biggest thing that I got out of it was that I had to work on some things I almost never would have done myself (for me, my low level C/Linux code and networking classes), and it expanded my overall understanding of computers a bit. You can do that yourself, but you have to do it yourself. :)
drbojingle 7y ago
This is a psychological phenomenon called choice paralysis. My advice: get a mentor. Someone who knows the industry and can remove bad options. OR. Just pick one and forget about it. Personally my favorite approach a Bring your own idea approach, where you come up with something you want to build and then figure out how to build it, rather than focusing on what's hot or best or correct. You can stripe down CS and focus only on the product development necessary to achieve a release. Gets you coding, which is a good first step in to CS and a better first step in to the industry (CS != business. Overlaps but ain't the same.) I'm teaching my girlfriend to code and right now she's on the basics: html, and css. She had no idea what to build so I got her to start working on a dictionary of all the things she's learning (essentially she's taking her notes on html, in html). Very recursive and reinforces the knowledge, but (if they're curious) it would naturally segway into "how do I make it look pretty" (which it did) and we're continuing from there.

reikonomusha 7y ago

Metrics give you feedback on your level of mastery.

drbojingle 7y ago
Yes but they're not the goal.
cgriswald 7y ago
> Metrics give you feedback on your level of mastery. Metrics can give you feedback on your level of mastery, but this varies wildly with whoever is providing the feedback.
uwuhn 7y ago
So do massive FAANG offers.