Super Volatile

Krzysztof Szafranek's link blog

Hi, I'm Krzysztof and I make websites.
When I'm not making websites, I read these.
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Apr 9, 2012 / 3:06pm

Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years

C++: In 3 days you might be able to learn some of the syntax of C++ (if you already know another language), but you couldn't learn much about how to use the language. In short, if you were, say, a Basic programmer, you could learn to write programs in the style of Basic using C++ syntax, but you couldn't learn what C++ is actually good (and bad) for. So what's the point? Alan Perlis once said: "A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing". One possible point is that you have to learn a tiny bit of C++ (or more likely, something like JavaScript or Flash's Flex) because you need to interface with an existing tool to accomplish a specific task. But then you're not learning how to program; you're learning to accomplish that task.
more on norvig.com

A classic article that didn't get old.

Filed under: learning   programming  
 
Mar 10, 2012 / 6:15pm

Nobody Wants to Learn How to Program

But for the casually interested or schoolchildren with several activities competing for their attention, programming concepts like variables and loops and data types aren’t interesting in themselves. They don’t want to learn how to program just for the sake of programming. They don’t want to learn about algorithm complexity or implicit casting. They want to make Super Mario or Twitter or Angry Birds.
more on inventwithpython.com

On learning programming. Or anything, for that matter – having a clear goal is always more motivating that acquiring abstract concepts without an application.

Filed under: learning   programming  
 
Feb 12, 2012 / 11:50pm

What I’ve Learned About Smart People

I can of course make no authoritative claims here, but I have noticed one overarching theme among smart people: they ask questions. When someone explains something new to me, I’ll usually just nod my head like I know what they’re talking about.
more on tmac721.tumblr.com

The author is onto something.

Filed under: intelligence   learning  
 
Jul 21, 2011 / 12:24am

How do I set engineering goals for myself?

An easy way to think about your knowledge portfolio goes like this. Your knowledge portfolio can be partitioned into five subsets.

  1. Things that you don't know anything about. For me, distributed systems would go to this category.
  2. Things that you are familiar with but are not comfortable with. For me, iOS development would go to this category.
  3. Things that you are comfortable with. For me, Vim would go to this category.
  4. Things that you were once comfortable with but have sort of forgotten. For me, type theory would go to this category.
  5. Things that you have a complete mastery with and will never forget. I have very few things in this category, but maybe mathematics teaching would go to this category.

more on quora.com

Despite puffed-up terms like “knowledge portfolio”, the advice itself actually makes sense.

Filed under: learning  
 
May 25, 2010 / 10:41pm

Dan Meyer: Math class needs a makeover

more on ted.com

Interesting presentation on how to teach math.

Filed under: learning   math  
 
Feb 11, 2010 / 8:50am

Pain. Or, Why Learning to Code is like Learning Chinese

Now I understand why so many business students and other non-technical types who love technology make the attempt to learn how to code and then quit right around now. In non-technical professions there really is no equivalent to this particular type of learning. Spending an entire day to get the “name” field to work on a form for your website is easy to dismiss as a “non-optimal” use of time, especially when there’s someone you can hire who can do it in 5 minutes.

Though I think that is completely missing the point.

more on savemefrombschool.com

From a diary of unusually determined girl.

Filed under: learning   programming