

Ask HN: How can I learn computer science? - jmsbrwr

Let&#x27;s say that, over the next six months, I wanted to learn a bunch of computer science topics that are used in-industry and how they are used. What would you recommend I learn and in what order?<p>Also, are there any lesser known resources that would help? Obviously I know of Coursera and EdX, but I am hoping there are a few more gems out there.
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shire
Computer science is pretty broad. You have to know what field you want to get
into other wise I can just point to you random links with things that might
not be of interest to you. Are you looking to become a software engineer or a
web developer?

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jmsbrwr
I'm currently a student at App Academy (similar to Dev Bootcamp), so I suppose
I am being trained for web development, but that isn't what I want.

I want to go into software engineering and start my own business. My idea is
to take these boot camps like App Academy and tailor the material to computer
science, which I believe will be much more effective at landing jobs for
students.

The problem is that I don't know whether this is a valid idea and I want to
use myself as a test. My question is, given six months, can I learn enough
computer science to get a job that uses something other than Rails.

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shire
You're doing a great thing right now by attending App Academy. It's a gateway
to a better future because one you will learn how to program in a fun way
which will spark more interest and hopefully passion. I actually wanted to
attend App Academy but I'm in Seattle.

Web development will allow you to learn programming in a fun way and then a
year or two you can transition that into bigger and better things.

For example. If you learn web development using Ruby on Rails, after some good
experience with that language you can take what you learned into say something
like Java which is an enterprise heavy language and from there you can get
into web development with Java and move onto software development but
everything takes time.

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jmsbrwr
I get what you are saying and I think, to a decent extent, that was my goal in
accepting a spot in the program. I want to learn C++ mainly because it is a
huge language with some darker corners and the general consensus seems to be
that half-knowing C++ is just plain dangerous in a production environment.

Moreover though, I want to work in a field where I find my work to be
meaningful and I think education is a very good opportunity. The education
market is ready to be rocked by an earthquake.

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shire
Ultimately you're going to need to know multiple programming languages in your
toolbox to be considered dangerous. I recommend Java, C++, Python and
Javascript IMO.

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jmsbrwr
I meant dangerous in a bad way. :P I agree though. I have some background in
Python and I am learning JavaScript now. C++ is next.

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nsp
The first language is 90% of the effort, it's not super unusual to be
proficient in a new language in six months (for a given value of proficient).
While obviously there are new concepts (static typing, functional
programming), the first language is definitely the hardest.

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matt_
MIT OCW

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jmsbrwr
Does OCW have content that isn't available on EdX?

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matt_
Yes

[http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-
comput...](http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-
science/)

