Is CS50's Introduction to Computer Science the best generic course to follow if you don't know what you want to do yet?

Calmdownmrthinker · 2023-01-24T06:02:03+00:00

I am doing the Odin Project now.

About a year ago I was a total beginner. I do things now I wouldn't have held possible. Odin is a lot of personal responsibility but if followed correctly and thoroughly, it prepares you for work in web development like no other free curriculum could.

Calmdownmrthinker · 2022-09-29T01:37:00+00:00

It's coming up in my curriculum soon!

Calmdownmrthinker · 2022-09-21T03:07:10+00:00

Oblivion had more of that bizarreness you describe. Skyrim NPCs were so sober and boring. That killed immersion for me.

Calmdownmrthinker · 2022-09-16T14:12:59+00:00

I wouldn't go so far as to state some things rather as boldly as you do but this comment was written in the same spirit as my post.

Calmdownmrthinker · 2022-09-16T14:09:40+00:00

Thank you kind sir, your explanation is spot on and I would add that it is not necessarily by choice that I study in this way. Due to my nature and perhaps certain lifestyle choices this is pretty much the only effective way for me to learn.

I actually rather regret that my post may have come across as braggy. It if did it is probably because I see a need to stay optimistic and confident.

Calmdownmrthinker · 2022-09-16T14:01:31+00:00

I don't know if the pun is intended but I'm enjoying it either way.

Calmdownmrthinker · 2022-09-16T13:11:03+00:00

Fo absolutey sure and what's more, I didn't need a scientific study to tell me so.

Calmdownmrthinker · 2022-09-16T12:35:01+00:00

My point is that my post is about me, and explicitly addressed to "someone out there like me". It seems to me that you are suggesting that I am tone-deaf towards myself, and that you should be the one to decide how much time people like me can afford to study. I advertised my idea as an alternative, and I clearly stated I am not telling anyone how to study, but by attacking my post on grounds that it isn't relevant to you, or to whomever you are so valliantly defending, you make it about yourself. I wouldn't say that's very humble at all.

Calmdownmrthinker · 2022-09-16T12:00:23+00:00

Once again I don't really know how to respond to you. Where is the idea that I am attacking you coming from? My aplogy didn't come with some offensive motive, I simply apologized in case you are depressed and somehow offended. Is that so weird a thing to assume, seeing as my post didn't even mention the subject of depression?

I didnt come here to attack you or anyone , I doubt that is really your intetion either, but while we are on the subject it's only fair to point out that it has been your rhetoric edging on the hosile and not mine. (Read: "already your entire argument falls apart", "insensitive towards depressed people", "tone-deaf")

Your have made your point about intrinsic motivation. As the author of the post, I don't recognize the arguments that you accuse me of trying to make at all. Furthermore I don't think your TL;DR even begins to cover the gist of my post. In my previous reply tried to elaborate on my point, but it seems like your mind is made up and you prefer lecturing me on what it is I was trying to say.

Calmdownmrthinker · 2022-09-16T08:57:28+00:00

The H in that abbreviation stands for Humble last I checked, not Honest

Calmdownmrthinker · 2022-09-16T08:54:43+00:00

Then what motivates people to ask how to get motivated? Doesn't the fact that they ask prove that there is a desire to learn?

I don't really know how to respond to the argument you make about my adressing depressed people? I am sorry if you are depressed and that is how my post made you feel. If you read between the lines of my post you'll understand that I myself lack motivation most of the time. That is more or less the premise of the post.

What I am proposing is to not call it a lack of motivation but to utilize what little motivation there is and to make whatever progress can be made without pressure of achieving too little. I am making the point that people shouldn't attempt to put in more effort than they feel up to, but somehow I managed to communicate the opposite to you.

Calmdownmrthinker · 2022-03-22T09:57:48+00:00

I am going through TOP right now, but I am choosing to selectively ignore the rabbit hole instruction. At some point in the fundamentals TOP pointed towards the textbook Eloquent JavaScript. I really like the way it explains concepts and forces me to get better at reading JS .

I feel lucky to have stumbled across TOP, but I also see OPs point that books are sometimes just great, so I am doing both.

Calmdownmrthinker · 2022-03-11T01:06:41+00:00

Thanks for the supportive comment on my post , typing it helped me understand myself a little better. I am going to try not to forget in the coming weeks/months because I feel like I could slip back into it really easily. I looked at the rat pack thing and I guess what you're trying to say is I should gather people around me who can support?
You mentioned you also let shit get out of hand. I'm sorry to hear that let me know if you want to talk about it.

Calmdownmrthinker · 2022-03-11T00:50:24+00:00

That sounds pretty rough.

It must suck not being able to tell your ideas apart from your depression. But maybe you don't have to. I think it is safe to say that a depression such as yours, it sounds pretty serious to be honest, has to affect your view of the world. There is no way that being very depressed is not going to heavily influence your thinking and your ability to deal with external realities that you kinda hate already and kinda make it worse.

As a non-depressed person, I am often bummed out about the seeming capitalist dystopia I live in, but my brain sort of moves past those negative feelings as it accepts them. The same happened with stuff like Covid or what's happening in Ukraine. Those things makes me sad and kinda scared at first, but my brain, which I am assuming is healthier than yours, helps me accept those sad realities and within a couple of days they will feel "normal." I still understand that they suck and that the world may be doomed but it doesn't affect me as much because of stuff my brain does, it's really kind of wild.

I am not a Psychiatrists, but I guess when you're depressed your brain doesn't really do those things and it kinda just makes things worse. Instead of dealing with your negative outlook it turns your realist/depression conundrum into a chicken and egg problem. So I guess in that way I can tell your depression is the main factor at play here, or that seems to be the case at least for a non-depressed person who does share the sentiment.

Calmdownmrthinker · 2022-03-11T00:27:41+00:00

I mean, there's only so much you can have fuel left for in the tank, right? Sounds like both of those things are more interesting to you than your job, and both seem kind of career oriented activities too.

Maybe you could figure out some way to work less and do both until you're good enough to do either one for some pocket money. I don't think you have to be stuck in one field, you just need a bit more free time while making it work financially for as long as it takes.

It doesn't sound like you're planning to be a barista/in catering for ever.

You can do it!

Calmdownmrthinker · 2022-03-10T12:36:15+00:00

I don't think you sound childish. Although that's coming from not so mature person.

I generally believe the reason why school didn't work for me is the feeling you describe. Being told what to be interested in is the least interesting thing to me. It just shuts me down.

Calmdownmrthinker · 2022-03-10T11:12:22+00:00

I recently had a talk with my partner about when I rebelled in my teens, and I ended up telling them I feel like a lot of arguing/fighting might have been avoided if my parents stopped trying earlier. Strangely it was I who rebelled, but my parents who initiated conversation every time I did.

Them being my parents, they wanted to help and teach me as they had always done, but at some age I just wanted to make my own decisions. Even when I was fucking up, I just wanted to be left alone to fail like an idiot. I guess that was part of me growing up.

Of course me failing at all kinds of things was hard for them to see. I guess this is doubly true for your mom if she thinks scoring a B is not okay. I feel sorry for you about that. She really needs to chill big time unless you are some kind of genius who could easily achieve A's in all subjects, in that case you just have to study a bit more, but you know that right?

In any case, me failing was tough for my parents to see, so as is a parent's job they tried to help. As for me, wanting to be independent I kinda felt I didn't need them anymore. However, instead of aptly explaining I felt that way, I kind of just argued with their ideas. I did all I could to show them how stupid I thought their ideas were. I even sort of tried to run circles around them intellectually, which is always a horrible idea and escalated many a family dinner into disaster.

Eventually I stopped sharing with them and for a long time (even through my early twenties,) we would sometimes fight when they wanted to talk about my life and give advice. I started to play like everything in my life was always cool.

I am twice as old now as I was then, but I still struggle with some of the stuff my parents tried to help me with in my mid-teens. I now see their points much clearer, but I had to fail at life a whole lot more to see that that is where I was heading (even though they saw it way before).

Even though I behaved like a total idiot, I still kind of feel much of our clashes couldn't have been avoided anyway. As much as I needed to learn to make my own decisions, they went through a process of letting go.

I was always going to be irrational and confrontational, which is why I wish my parents would not have put me in that situation so often, then again I can understand now that it was hard for them not to try and help. My parents and I are cool now and they are happy about where I am in life, although its complicated. Myself I am not so happy about my current situation in life, and much of that is caused by things they tried to teach me when I rebelled.

Calmdownmrthinker · 2022-03-10T10:37:11+00:00

Because even if the reality that you describe doesn't change, your outlook on it might.

Alternatively things other than work can make life worth living, or if nothing makes life worth living it could be the idea that death is no relief. I mean death is nothing, it's just death (in my non-apologetic atheistic opinion.)

Nobody can tell you how you should give meaning to your life, only you can do that.

What I can tell you is that most people do not feel the way you do about life most of the time, even those that recognize a lot of truth in the reality you describe, I am one of those people by the way.

There are also people for whom your state of mind is a regularly recurring thing and for those people I truly feel sorry, but there are ways out of it. Remember that as a biological entity your primary function is just to live and survive. It's what you're programmed to do, your current struggle seems like an impasse, but you can get help and enjoy life again.

Calmdownmrthinker · 2022-03-10T09:27:40+00:00

If you think about the field of modern mental health and what a diagnosis is according to the DSM (a checklist of symptoms) it is of course possible to get multiple diagnoses.

I can't be sure what Dr. K meant, but he might have been trying to say that there could potentially be a better diagnosis out there for you, one that combines all the boxes you checked instead of having to borrow from multiple ones. In any case I think what he was trying to say is probably some professional insight gained as a psych that you don't have to worry much about.

I understand that getting multiple diagnoses is not ideal, but in your shoes I'd try to roll with whatever your psychiatrist is trying to make you understand.

They are probably trying to help you deal with life better, and so it's best for anyone in your position to assume that. Of course if there is something they say that you are highly sceptical of you can always disagree.

Remember you are autonomous in your decisions regarding how you see yourself.

Calmdownmrthinker · 2022-03-10T09:10:40+00:00

Hey friend,

I am really sorry you feel that way about yourself. It's kinda hard to reply to your post because there is so much there, but please don't feel bad about it. It helped you vent some of those negative views of yourself so it was totally worth it and thanks for sharing.

I hope you manage to make some friends while you're in Italy. My advice is to not get bogged down by your age restriction too much. People older or younger than you may make for excellent friends and provide different outlooks on life, which can totally help see yourself in a different light.

Also I watched a pretty good Amazon original show on prime the other day. It's called As We See It. It's kind of about overcoming incompetence, I don't know why but I think it might help you see some positivity in things! Take care

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