3 ms·

I think expectation management is important and as you note: > Self-teaching computer science is a long and winding road. What does this mean in terms of year

I think expectation management is important and as you note: > Self-teaching computer science is a long and winding road. What does this mean in terms of years? My estimate for the not too persistent average person is, that working through (not only read once, forget) all of the books listed on that website could well take 10 years. For someone very focused maybe 5 and for one working "day and night" on it maybe shorter. Just to give an idea: SICP, the PDF version, has already 800+ pages and many many challenging exercises to solve. That alone could take a year or more, depending on how easily it comes to a person. That said, I often find the website to build up a huge wall against which anyone with not 100% motivation will crash. It might not be a realistic program for most people and I would rather recommend one item after another or smaller parts.

noelwelsh 4y ago
I expect the "not too persistent average person" would make zero progress, as my experience is that the average person learns very little unless forced to do so. For SICP, I read through the year after finishing my undergraduate Computer Engineering degree. I had a decent background, but a lot of the concepts in SICP were new. I loved the book and got through it in a few months of train rides, doing most of the exercises in my head. I feel that was sufficient for me, but I also don't think I'm in any way the "average person" when it comes to this domain.
bnralt 4y ago
Years ago I saw someone who was starting out in a specialist forum lament that everyone else on the forum was so much further ahead than they were. A user pointed out that the type of people who spend a lot of time on specialist forums are going to be among those most dedicated to the field, and just by visiting the forum and trying to improve themselves in that domain the individual was probably better than the vast majority of the people working in that domain. If you’re goal is to have the same amount of CS knowledge as the average person with a CS degree who’s a few years out of college, it probably wouldn’t take that much time. Extremely few - I’d say almost none - CS graduates have gone through the entirety of SICP. You can read the other comment where someone said they went through it after getting a degree in computer engineering, and a lot of the concepts in it being new to them. How long will this take? If you’re focused on learning as much as you can, it’s a never ending journey. But you probably won’t find a use for most of the knowledge (more and more so as you go along), so it’s going to be a hobby for the most part. If you’re just trying to cover the topics that people say you need to know (IE, the site gives understanding recursion as a reason to go through SICP), I imagine you could learn most of them surprisingly quickly.
908B64B197 4y ago
> What does this mean in terms of years? My estimate for the not too persistent average person is, that working through (not only read once, forget) all of the books listed on that website could well take 10 years. For someone very focused maybe 5 and for one working "day and night" on it maybe shorter. College courses don't go through books from start to finish. The instructor determines what's appropriate and what's left to the reader (and these books can be picked up many years later when someone recognize a gap in knowledge that's covered). However, what's missing from these books are group assignments and mentoring from a proper instructor. > Just to give an idea: SICP, the PDF version, has already 800+ pages and many many challenging exercises to solve. That alone could take a year or more, depending on how easily it comes to a person. You aren't supposed to go through the whole book, especially for an intro class using SICP.
- porknubbins 4y ago
  As a long time self learner the single hardest part is where to draw the line between conpletionism/ just good enough. College has this built in because an instructor will teach and test the most important parts. Alone you always worry if you skip something it will come back later. Math is the worst- trying to complete a textbook could easily take years.
Hermitian909 4y ago
I went through most of the books listed and did the exercises. This happened over the span of 6ish years but I was not always consistent. Timing is really hard to nail down because your strength as a programmer and engineer really come into play. SICP, for example, took me about a month of putting in a few hours a day. As it turned out my professional experience had given me significant experience with many of the concepts involved. Conversely, for Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach it took me 6+ months because I'd never had meaningful experience with networks outside of browser dev tools and was not very good at systems level stuff.

noelwelsh 4y ago

I expect the "not too persistent average person" would make zero progress, as my experience is that the average person learns very little unless forced to do so. For SICP, I read through the year after finishing my undergraduate Computer Engineering degree. I had a decent background, but a lot of the concepts in SICP were new. I loved the book and got through it in a few months of train rides, doing most of the exercises in my head. I feel that was sufficient for me, but I also don't think I'm in any way the "average person" when it comes to this domain.

bnralt 4y ago

Years ago I saw someone who was starting out in a specialist forum lament that everyone else on the forum was so much further ahead than they were. A user pointed out that the type of people who spend a lot of time on specialist forums are going to be among those most dedicated to the field, and just by visiting the forum and trying to improve themselves in that domain the individual was probably better than the vast majority of the people working in that domain. If you’re goal is to have the same amount of CS knowledge as the average person with a CS degree who’s a few years out of college, it probably wouldn’t take that much time. Extremely few - I’d say almost none - CS graduates have gone through the entirety of SICP. You can read the other comment where someone said they went through it after getting a degree in computer engineering, and a lot of the concepts in it being new to them. How long will this take? If you’re focused on learning as much as you can, it’s a never ending journey. But you probably won’t find a use for most of the knowledge (more and more so as you go along), so it’s going to be a hobby for the most part. If you’re just trying to cover the topics that people say you need to know (IE, the site gives understanding recursion as a reason to go through SICP), I imagine you could learn most of them surprisingly quickly.

908B64B197 4y ago

> What does this mean in terms of years? My estimate for the not too persistent average person is, that working through (not only read once, forget) all of the books listed on that website could well take 10 years. For someone very focused maybe 5 and for one working "day and night" on it maybe shorter. College courses don't go through books from start to finish. The instructor determines what's appropriate and what's left to the reader (and these books can be picked up many years later when someone recognize a gap in knowledge that's covered). However, what's missing from these books are group assignments and mentoring from a proper instructor. > Just to give an idea: SICP, the PDF version, has already 800+ pages and many many challenging exercises to solve. That alone could take a year or more, depending on how easily it comes to a person. You aren't supposed to go through the whole book, especially for an intro class using SICP.

porknubbins 4y ago
As a long time self learner the single hardest part is where to draw the line between conpletionism/ just good enough. College has this built in because an instructor will teach and test the most important parts. Alone you always worry if you skip something it will come back later. Math is the worst- trying to complete a textbook could easily take years.

Hermitian909 4y ago

I went through most of the books listed and did the exercises. This happened over the span of 6ish years but I was not always consistent. Timing is really hard to nail down because your strength as a programmer and engineer really come into play. SICP, for example, took me about a month of putting in a few hours a day. As it turned out my professional experience had given me significant experience with many of the concepts involved. Conversely, for Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach it took me 6+ months because I'd never had meaningful experience with networks outside of browser dev tools and was not very good at systems level stuff.