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We're working on it! Next up: Data analysis. Which ones would you like to see?

netcan 13y ago
As an immediate step, data analysis sounds good. :) As a theoretical, how about medicine, pharmacology, every flavour of engineering, fine art, music, architecture. Coding, graphic design seem to have a few things going for them that make them a very natural fit for self learning online. Part of it is not needing much outside of a laptop and an internet connection, but math needs even less and you find far fewer autodidact mathematicians. I suspect that not needing a curriculum is actually a part of it. I don't dispute that having a curriculum available to you can be useful and that following a curriculum will get you from start to finish will probably give you a relatively efficient, high success rate path. But, I think that the more self contained and small an effective quanta of learning is, the more suited it is to self learning.
- gautambay 13y ago
  Considering that learning is a means to an end for most people, another factor is employers' willingness to hire a self-taught individual -- far greater in areas like software development or design (where one can showcase one's skills through a portfolio) than say medicine (where the only credential of accepted value is a professional degree). Not saying that's the way it should necessarily be, but the status quo presents a hurdle for self-learners and content creators. That said, we're in this for the long haul, and we definitely want to try and push the boundaries in areas other than software/technology down the road.
  - netcan 13y ago
    Like I said, data analysis sounds great as a next week idea. Where can I hear about it when it goes live?
    - gautambay 13y ago
      Well, the alpha version just went live at http://www.mysliderule.com/data-analysis-intro http://www.mysliderule.com/data-analysis-intro. We'll work on structure / organization and release an updated version later this week.
      - netcan 13y ago
        Cool. BTW, as a side note. I think a great idea for a data course would be Learn to make http://xkcd.com/980/ http://xkcd.com/980/ as its starting point. Where does he get this data. How does he work with it. Why is it represented like this.
        parul 13y ago
        some mindblowing numbers there. Thanks for sharing!

As an immediate step, data analysis sounds good. :) As a theoretical, how about medicine, pharmacology, every flavour of engineering, fine art, music, architecture. Coding, graphic design seem to have a few things going for them that make them a very natural fit for self learning online. Part of it is not needing much outside of a laptop and an internet connection, but math needs even less and you find far fewer autodidact mathematicians. I suspect that not needing a curriculum is actually a part of it. I don't dispute that having a curriculum available to you can be useful and that following a curriculum will get you from start to finish will probably give you a relatively efficient, high success rate path. But, I think that the more self contained and small an effective quanta of learning is, the more suited it is to self learning.

gautambay 13y ago
Considering that learning is a means to an end for most people, another factor is employers' willingness to hire a self-taught individual -- far greater in areas like software development or design (where one can showcase one's skills through a portfolio) than say medicine (where the only credential of accepted value is a professional degree). Not saying that's the way it should necessarily be, but the status quo presents a hurdle for self-learners and content creators. That said, we're in this for the long haul, and we definitely want to try and push the boundaries in areas other than software/technology down the road.
- netcan 13y ago
  Like I said, data analysis sounds great as a next week idea. Where can I hear about it when it goes live?
  - gautambay 13y ago
    Well, the alpha version just went live at http://www.mysliderule.com/data-analysis-intro http://www.mysliderule.com/data-analysis-intro. We'll work on structure / organization and release an updated version later this week.
    - netcan 13y ago
      Cool. BTW, as a side note. I think a great idea for a data course would be Learn to make http://xkcd.com/980/ http://xkcd.com/980/ as its starting point. Where does he get this data. How does he work with it. Why is it represented like this.
      - parul 13y ago
        some mindblowing numbers there. Thanks for sharing!