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Adding for context: I don’t have a degree/background in CS. I majored in Math back in college and learned Python followed by a js bootcamp. I’m now years beyond

Adding for context: I don’t have a degree/background in CS. I majored in Math back in college and learned Python followed by a js bootcamp. I’m now years beyond that and have developed what I’d deem is enough of an understanding of CS fundamentals to the point that I can comfortably speak about/implement most things in the leetcode/technical interview space. My college didn’t have cs and I definitely feel like I missed out on learning about some really interesting things and now have an understanding that can only go so deep across the stack. Based on this, let me know if you think rust is the better choice, or if you have any other thoughts as to how might be good to spend my time e.g. maybe I’m just in the wrong space entirely and should be reading a book on Postgres… I love learning new stuff, but I sometimes find that I don’t invest my time in the wisest thing at a given moment. After thinking on the replies, I am now supplementing this post with a request for whatever you think would help someone like me

prirun 4y ago
My degree is in Applied Math & Computer Science, at an engineering school, but the CS aspect was rather lame and the applied math part was basically useless for computers. But I got the piece of paper, which was my main goal. So like you, I've taught myself pretty much everything I know about computers. You mentioned reading a book on Postgres. If you don't know SQL, I'd recommend learning that, either with Postgres or maybe more simply with SQLite. Whatever you pick as a toy project, make sure it has lots of data to help you understand indexes. With small data, everything will be fast. With large data, like a few million rows, you have to become very familiar with how the database actually executes queries so you can add the correct indexes to make things run fast. And you can't just add indexes for every query, because that slows down inserts and updates; there's a trade-off there that you'll have to balance.

prirun 4y ago

My degree is in Applied Math & Computer Science, at an engineering school, but the CS aspect was rather lame and the applied math part was basically useless for computers. But I got the piece of paper, which was my main goal. So like you, I've taught myself pretty much everything I know about computers. You mentioned reading a book on Postgres. If you don't know SQL, I'd recommend learning that, either with Postgres or maybe more simply with SQLite. Whatever you pick as a toy project, make sure it has lots of data to help you understand indexes. With small data, everything will be fast. With large data, like a few million rows, you have to become very familiar with how the database actually executes queries so you can add the correct indexes to make things run fast. And you can't just add indexes for every query, because that slows down inserts and updates; there's a trade-off there that you'll have to balance.