jefferickson

6 ms·

1.
by jefferickson 4y ago
It's a fantastic book, but it's not worth $186.65.
2.
by jefferickson 4y ago
Well, I can tell you why I think my book is not good for that — it isn't designed to be that! My book grew out of lecture notes that I wrote for my algorithms classes at Illinois. My students are almost exclusively juniors and senio
3.
by jefferickson 4y ago
Thanks for the kind feedback. I'm glad I could help!
4.
by jefferickson 4y ago
> the style seems more targeted towards someone with a bunch of time reading through it slowly rather than gulping it down quickly like for most undergraduate courses. Yep. That's intentional. If you try to gulp this subject down q
5.
by jefferickson 6y ago
The book evolved from lecture notes that I've been publicly posting since at least 2005.
6.
by jefferickson 6y ago
> And there it is, your argument comes down to gatekeeping Bullshit. If you want to play basketball in the NBA, you have to practice your ass off to develop the necessary skills. If you want to be a successful car mechanic, you have to
7.
by jefferickson 6y ago
Thanks for the kind feedback!
8.
by jefferickson 6y ago
Not any more; see my comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26096052
9.
by jefferickson 6y ago
> I'm happy to see that the top comment is about his 25% credit for I Don't Know. That willingness to fold with grace is something that gets lost with standardized testing I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint you. Afte
10.
by jefferickson 6y ago
> See also https://github.com/tayllan/awesome-algorithms for more learning resources, practice problems, visualizations, etc. Oooo, nice. Thanks for the link!
11.
by jefferickson 6y ago
Nope. It's Bitstream Charter.
12.
by jefferickson 6y ago
> I think the ideal would be something like an autograder, rather than a solution Me too! But I don't know how to write a useful auto-grader for free-form English text and pseudocode, and neither does anyone else. Even a pedagogica
13.
by jefferickson 6y ago
> OTOH, just because something is free doesn't mean that people can't criticize, IMO. I couldn't agree more!
14.
by jefferickson 6y ago
Nobody learns learn how to design algorithms from flash cards. Mastering any skill requires sustained practice: driving writing, basketball, auto repair, carpentry, banjo, gardening, combat juggling, web development, teaching, and yes, ev
15.
by jefferickson 6y ago
Hi, I'm the author. You're of course welcome not to recommend my book to anyone for any reason. But in my own defense, my reluctance to release solutions is not a moral stance, or a belief that I know what's best for all lea
16.
by jefferickson 8y ago
No, I've had several students answer "I don't know" to every question on the final exam. (About one every two or three years.) Without exception, they got a 25% on the exam and an F in the class. Other theory instructo
17.
by jefferickson 8y ago
Oops. I'd say submit a bug report, but as of yesterday it become moot. As others have said, the copyright notice is only a courtesy/reminder. I've held the copyright on all this stuff from the moment I started writing it (a
18.
by jefferickson 8y ago
You can get an EPUB and MOBI versions from the Internet Archive (auto-converted from my uploaded pdf), but I can't vouch for its quality. All the fonts are baked into the PDF, so it should be readable anywhere; if it isn't, please
19.
by jefferickson 8y ago
Not so much in the book itself, but definitely in the "Director's Cut" notes on the book web site. I cover bloom filters and the like in my more advanced algorithms courses. Teaching that material correctly (without the trad
20.
by jefferickson 8y ago
Exactly. The students should be the masters, not the theorem.
21.
by jefferickson 8y ago
Yep, all this. Let me add two more points: - Own your past mistakes. They happened. Don't pretend they didn't. Figure out the underlying cause of those mistakes, and gather EVIDENCE that you've resolved that cause. (In my c
22.
by jefferickson 8y ago
I'm not sure I can answer that question for anyone but myself. I've worked through quite a few pieces of TAOCP when I've needed to understand a particular topic, but I always find that I lose interest. But then I've ne
23.
by jefferickson 8y ago
Day made!!
24.
by jefferickson 8y ago
"Dijkstra's algorithm for shortest paths can be seen as DP" Really? Sure, if the graph is a dag, but then Dijkstra is overkill. Hmm. I'll have to think about this one. +1 for the Okasaki shoutout.
25.
by jefferickson 8y ago
Forget about efficiency for the moment and focus on discovering the underlying recursive problem. LOTS of people struggle with dynamic programming. But in my experience, 90% of the difficulty with dynamic programming is actually discomfort
26.
by jefferickson 8y ago
As I've said elsewhere, I'm looking out for my own students first. One of my colleagues suggested setting up a "club" on PerusAll ( https://app.perusall.com/welcome ) or something similar that would allow
27.
by jefferickson 8y ago
Ew. Ew ew ew. No. Wait, did I say that aloud? Sorry, I meant "I'm already busy enough, thanks."
28.
by jefferickson 8y ago
WHAT unit tests? This is not a book about programming. The solutions are not code. None of the homework in my algorithms classes CAN be auto-graded.
29.
by jefferickson 8y ago
Of course the student is ultimately responsible for their own learning, but as the instructor, it's my responsibility to help them learn. Dangling a juicy piece of bacon in front of their noses will not help them eat their vegetables
30.
by jefferickson 8y ago
Yes, I have thought about making it into an open-source project, like Pat Morin did with his Open Data Structures textbook, or Boaz Barak with his Modern Complexity Theory textbook. (Both highly recommended, BTW.) But I'm hesitant t

More ›