Ask HN: How can I learn computer science?

9 pointsjmsbrwr13y ago10 comments

Let'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?

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.

9 pointsjmsbrwr13y ago10 comments

Let'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?

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.

10 comments

6 comments · 2 top-level

shire13y ago· 2 in thread

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?

jmsbrwrOP13y ago

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.

shire13y ago

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.

1 more reply

matt_13y ago· 2 in thread

MIT OCW

jmsbrwrOP13y ago

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

matt_13y ago

Yes

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-comput...

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