What is the difference in the standard of the teaching of mathematics between the three top ranked UK universities?

Answer

Top UK universities Rankings 2018

Mathematics is the science of numbers, space and quantity, and is one of the most valued subjects in society. Is this adding up to be an attractive degree subject for you? Take a look at this link Mathematics - Top UK University Subject Tables and Rankings 2018 , which includes Mathematics, Operational Research and Statistics.

Does Being Lazy Could Actually Be a Sign of Intelligence?

Answer

I’m definitely one of those people who feels smarter in certain situations more than others. Sounds kind of silly, but I actually feel more intelligent when I’m working in an office, rather than when I’m sitting on my couch alone watching Netflix. That’s probably because we grow up hearing people say things like: Lazy people aren’t successful people .





Science Says Being Lazy Means You're Intelligent
Well, turns out you just might be. A recent study published in The Independent suggests that less active individuals, “the lazy,” might be more brainy than those who are constantly active: “Findings from a U.S-based study seem to support the idea that people with a high IQ get bored less easily, leading them to spend more time engaged in thought…non-thinkers get bored more easily, so [they] need to fill their time with physical activity.”

At first all I could think was, sweet! Now I don’t have to feel so bad if I spend the weekend loafing around. And sure, that’s what this study implies: We need to get more comfortable getting lost in our thoughts without having to multitask while doing so. But, it also cautions us to not get too content being a sloth, because like anything without moderation, it can become a bad habit—and detrimental to our health.
So, this week, don’t feel guilty if you’re not waking up at 5 AM and running10 miles like the pros do.

You’re maybe better off spending those extra couple of hours in bed thinking about your day, or planning out your schedule, or revisiting your monthly goals. However, also be mindful of how often you sit around, and if some of that free time not spent pondering your thoughts could be used for getting some chores done, hitting the gym, or meeting up with friends. Because even the smartest individuals know that those “active” activities are just as important to your growth, wellbeing, and overall happiness.

Source Link:https: //www.themuse.com/advice/hard-to-believe-but-being-lazy-could-actually-be-a-sign-of-intelligence

Why is IP overlapping?

 Answer 

An overlapping IP address is an IP address that is assigned to more than one device or logical unit, such as an event source type, on a network. If the same IP address is assigned to more than one event source, you can create domains to distinguish them.
Events that do not explicitly match a defined domain criteria are assigned to the default domain.

Domain-specific rules

If a rule has a domain test, you can restrict that rule so that it is applied only to events that are happening within a specified domain. An event that has a domain tag that is different from the domain that is set on the rule does not trigger an event response.
To create a rule that tests conditions on things that are happening across the entire system, set the domain condition to Any Domain.

Example 1: Assign log sources that have the same IP address to a domain

A company acquires other companies. Two of the acquisitions might have similar network structures. For example, both companies might use the same IP address for one of their log sources. To distinguish the origin of the events that come from one of these log sources, you can create two domains and assign each log source to a different domain. If required, you can also assign each Event Collector to same domain as the log source that sends events to them.
To assign log sources, log source groups, or Event Collectors to domains and then view incoming events by domain, follow these steps:
On the Admin tab, open Domain Management.
Click Add.
Create the domain and assign the event source to it.
On the Log Activity tab, create a search and in the Column Definition section, add Domain from the Available Columns list.

Example 2: Assign a custom property to a domain

You assign a custom property to a domain based on the capture result. You can assign the same custom property to multiple domains, however, the capture results must be different. A custom event property, such as userID, might evaluate to a user or list or users. The user can belong to only one domain.

To assign a custom property to a domain, follow these steps:

1. On the Admin tab, in the Custom Event Properties window, ensure that you select Optimize parsing for rules, reports, and searches check box.
2. On the Admin tab, open Domain Management.
3. Click Add.
4. In the Capture Result box, enter the text that matches the result of the regular expression (regex) filter.

Source link:
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/SS42VS_7.2.4/com.ibm.qradar.doc_7.2.4/c_qlm_ug_domain.html 

How does YouTube's recommendation algorithm work?

Answer

In a recent paper published by Google, YouTube engineers analyzed in greater detail the inner workings of YouTube’s recommendation algorithm. The paper was presented at the 10th ACM Conference on Recommender Systems last week in Boston.

YouTube recommendations are driven by Google Brain, which was recently open-sourced as TensorFlow. By using TensorFlow one can experiment with different deep neural network architectures using distributed training. The system consists of two neural networks. The first one, candidate generation, takes as input user’s watch history and using collaborative filtering selects videos in the range of hundreds. An important distinction between development and final deployment to production is that during development Google uses offline metrics for the performance of algorithms but the final decision comes from living A/B testing between the best performing algorithms.

Candidate generation uses the implicit feedback of video watched by users to train the model. Explicit feedback such as a thumbs up or a thumbs down to a video are in general rare compared to implicit and this is an even bigger issue with long-tail videos that are not popular.

To accelerate training of the model for newly uploaded videos, the age of each training example is fed in as a feature. Another key aspect for discovering and surfacing new content is to use all YouTube videos watched, even on partner sites, for the training of the algorithm. 

This way collaborative filtering can pick up viral videos right away. Finally, by adding more features and depth like searches and age of video other than the actual watches, YouTube was able to improve offline holdout precision results.
The second neural network is used for Ranking the few hundreds of videos in order. 

This is much simpler as a problem to candidate generation as the number of videos is smaller and more information is available for each video and its relationship with the user. This system uses logistic regression to score each video and then A/B testing is continuously used for further improvement. The metric used here is expected watch time, as expected click can promote clickbait. 

To train it on watch time rather than click through rate, the system uses a weighted variation of logistic regression with watch time as the weight for positive interactions and a unit weight for negative ones. This works out partly because the fraction of positive impressions is small compared to the total.

YouTube’s recommendation system is one of the most sophisticated and heavily used recommendation systems in the industry. The paper just scratches the surface but nonetheless gives several useful insights regarding engineering deep learning systems.

Source:https://www.infoq.com/news/2016/09/How-YouTube-Recommendation-Works

What are Google’s long-term aspirations for the Go programming language?

Answer

Google's contributions to DevOps culture -- the Go programming language and site reliability engineering title -- strike out in the right direction, though there's still a ways to go.

Modern IT organizations show growing interest in new programming languages, driven to meet business pressures for speed and agility without breaking anything. Google's Go language is gaining significant traction, especially in operations.

Today's most popular languages are based on object-oriented programming models, which are closely tied to system components such as the operating system. Established languages are often not as modular -- able to be broken up into small pieces and processed quickly -- as developers would like.

Go -- an infrastructure runtime language created in 2009 by Google engineers Robert Griesemer, Rob Pike and Ken Thompson -- was designed to address those limitations. In some ways, the Google Go language's design mimics the virtualization movement, wherein virtualized systems feature an abstraction layer that separates applications from hardware-level interfaces.

Go is modular: Its executables function autonomously with no external dependencies unless deliberately specified. Modern applications are large and complex, and processing runs across many systems. The Google Go programming language's modularity provides strong concurrency features, which speeds up execution of networked, distributed services, like web servers and containers.

Google attempted to combine the speed of a dynamic language, such as Python, with the performance and safety of a compiled language, such as C, in the Go programming language. It is flexible and lightweight with user-friendly syntax, has fast compile times and is scalable.

Consequently, Go has been garnering acceptance. The language has done well in systems infrastructure programming and development of new, large, complex applications relying on containers. It first appeared on market research firm RedMonk's annual survey listing the 20 most popular programming languages in 2015, and rose to number 15 in the rankings in 2016, holding steady in the Q1 2017 results.

A long way to Go

Historically, tension arose between development and operations teams because they have conflicting goals: Developers want to release new features to the masses as quickly as possible, and operations teams desire to prevent updates from disrupting the existing system infrastructure. Ops often tries to put the brakes on new releases, while development looks for ways to sneak around traditional operations checks.

The Google Go language has quickly emerged as a tool that may help operations and development staff clear these traditional barriers. Developers get dynamic, modular coding, while the application support group can trust compile performance and scalability in production. However, Go is missing important ecosystem elements that hold it back from a mass following.

Go has shortcomings. The language does not mesh well with traditional desktop graphical user interfaces (GUIs). A few frameworks are available, but more work is needed on cross-platform GUI libraries.

Another issue is a byproduct of the language's independence from underlying elements, such as an operating system. Go is not as good of a fit for managing low-level system components, such as embedded systems design, kernels or device drivers.

Additionally, the Go developer ecosystem is immature. Few commercial programming, development, and management systems are available. Third-party help, such as systems integrators and channel partners, is difficult to find.

The pieces needed to build up that support field are largely missing. "Right now, very few organizations offer to Go training and certification," Driver said.

Eduonix Learning Solutions Pvt. Ltd., a training company based in Navi Mumbai, India, offers a course covering issues such as Go's development environment, syntax and language structure, toolchain and dependencies. Udemy, which offers over 45,000 courses online, runs one class that focuses on Go fundamentals and how to apply the language to real-world scenarios. Pluralsight LLC's class, The Go Programming Language, looks at topics including concurrency, branches, and loops.

So, what is Go's future? Driver noted that the programming market in the future will probably be more fragmented than in the past, where a few languages dominated development. Go may not dominate like Java or C did during their heydays, but its use could become as widespread as Python.

Next Steps

Google is also behind an emerging DevOps concept dubbed site reliability engineering (SRE). SRE bridges ops and dev with a mathematical formula for green-lighting or red-lighting software launches. A team of dedicated engineers with ops skills continuously oversees software reliability during development. Proponents say SRE prevents a bored, frustrated ops team and keeps production stability from thwarting development creativity.

Source link:
http://searchitoperations.techtarget.com/tip/Googles-Go-language-seeks-DevOps-middle-ground 

Why Einstein Was a Genius?

Answer

Yes, and this because:

Albert Einstein is widely regarded as a genius, but how did he get that way? Many researchers have assumed that it took a very special brain to come up with the theory of relativity and other stunning insights that form the foundation of modern physics. A study of 14 newly discovered photographs of Einstein's brain, which was preserved for study after his death, concludes that the brain was indeed highly unusual in many ways. But researchers still don't know exactly how the brain's extra folds and convolutions translated into Einstein's amazing abilities.

The story of Einstein's brain is a long saga that began in 1955 when the Nobel Prize-winning physicist died in Princeton, New Jersey, at age 76. His son Hans Albert and executor Otto Nathan gave the examining pathologist, Thomas Harvey, permission to preserve the brain for scientific study. Harvey photographed the brain and then cut it into 240 blocks, which were embedded in a resinlike substance. He cut the blocks into as many as 2000 thin sections for microscopic study, and in subsequent years distributed microscopic slides and photographs of the brain to at least 18 researchers around the world. With the exception of the slides that Harvey kept for himself, no one is sure where the specimens are now, and many of them have probably been lost as researchers retired or died.

Over the decades, only six peer-reviewed publications resulted from these widely scattered materials. Some of these studies did find interesting features in Einstein's brain, including a greater density of neurons in some parts of the brain and a higher than usual ratio of glia (cells that help neurons transmit nerve impulses) to neurons. Two studies of the brain's gross anatomy, including one published in 2009 by anthropologist Dean Falk of Florida State University in Tallahassee, found that Einstein's parietal lobes—possibly linked to his remarkable ability to conceptualize physics problems—had a very unusual pattern of grooves and ridges.

But the Falk study was based on only a handful of photographs that had been previously made available by Harvey, who died in 2007. In 2010, Harvey's heirs agreed to transfer all of his materials to the U.S. Army's National Museum of Health and Medicine (NMHM) in Silver Spring, Maryland. For the new study, published today in the journal Brain, Falk teamed up with neurologist Frederick Lepore of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, in New Jersey, and Adrianne Noe, director of NMHM, to analyze 14 photographs of the whole brain from the Harvey collection that have never before been made public. The paper also includes a "roadmap" prepared by Harvey which links the photographs of the brain to the 240 blocks and the microscopic slides prepared from them, in hopes that other scientists will use them to do follow-up research.

The team compared Einstein's brain with those of 85 other humans already described in the scientific literature and found that the great physicist did indeed have something special between his ears. Although the brain, weighing 1230 grams, is only average in size, several regions feature additional convolutions and folds rarely seen in other subjects. For example, the regions on the left side of the brain that facilitate sensory inputs into, and motor control of, the face and tongue are much larger than normal; and his prefrontal cortex—linked to planning, focused attention, and perseverance in the face of challenges—is also greatly expanded.

"In each lobe," including the frontal, parietal, and occipital lobes, "there are regions that are exceptionally complicated in their convolutions," Falk says. As for the enlarged regions linked to the face and tongue, Falk thinks that this might relate to Einstein's famous quote that his thinking was often "muscular" rather than in words. Although this comment is usually interpreted as a metaphor for his subjective experiences as he thought about the universe, "it may be that he used his motor cortex in extraordinary ways" connected to abstract conceptualization, Falk says. Albert Galaburda, a neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, says that "what's great about this paper is that it puts down … the entire anatomy of Einstein's brain in great detail." Nevertheless, Galaburda adds, the study raises "very important questions for which we don't have an answer." Among them are whether Einstein started off with a special brain that predisposed him to be a great physicist, or whether doing great physics caused certain parts of his brain to expand. Einstein's genius, Galaburda says, was probably due to "some combination of a special brain and the environment he lived in." And he suggests that researchers now attempt to compare Einstein's brain with that of other talented physicists to see if the brain's features were unique to Einstein himself or are also seen in other scientists.

Falk agrees that both nature and nurture were probably involved, pointing out that Einstein's parents were "very nurturing" and encouraged him to be independent and creative, not only in science but also in music, paying for piano and violin lessons. (Falk's 2009 study found that a brain region linked to musical talent was highly developed in Einstein's brain.)

"Einstein programmed his own brain," Falk says, adding that when the field of physics was ripe for new insights, "he had the right brain in the right place at the right time."

*The images of Einstein’s brain are published in Falk, D., Lepore, F., Noe, A. (2012). The cerebral cortex of Albert Einstein: a description and preliminary analysis of unpublished photographs.Brain (doi #doi:10.1093/brain/aws295). They are reproduced here with permission from the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Silver Spring, Maryland.[1]

Footnotes

[1] Why Einstein Was a Genius

What did someone do that made you think they were really smart?

Answer

I met Travis Kalanick in ‘04. He will not remember me. This was pre-Uber and during Red Swoosh I think. He was not yet a “success”. His first start-up was shut down. The second was sold for a very small amount.

And he explained the entire future of video on the internet. In 2004. It was mostly right, and even what wasn’t, was profoundly insightful.

I remember thinking I’d never had a conversation like that, and I’d worked with some pretty good CEOs and founders before.

I’ve since seen that other times. I saw it with Peter Gassner, CEO of Veeva when I was also an Emergence Capital portfolio company, I got to meet him very early. He could see the future better than any of us. And Veeva was the most successful SaaS company of our batch, too. This is why I am having him speak at the ’17 SaaStr Annual (www.saastrannual.com)

Others like Auren Hoffman on Quora have this as well. Also, Marc Bodnick has this.

While I don’t know him, clearly, Elon Musk is an extreme case here as well. My co-founder of my first company worked with him when he was an intern in a supercapacitor start-up. She said everyone thought he was kind of crazy and bit rough back then … but he was already seeing things years ahead of where they were. As an intern.

The very smartest of us can see the present incredibly well. They can answer every objection, have thought through anything about their business you could every think about. The very smartest are never stumped. (And even when they are stumped, they know they are because they’ve already thought about it and known they don’t know the answer.)

But … the super smartest go further. They can actually see the future in a way we can’t. Somehow.

These are the founders I try to invest in. The ones that can see the future. For real. Much better than I ever could.

This is why I think investing really is kind of easy. Combine someone like that, with a smidge of traction. Never ever bet against them in that case.

What did someone do that made you think they were really smart?

What does your IQ say about you?

Answer

Personality and IQ have traditionally been viewed as distinct domains of human functioning. However, research over the past three decades suggests that IQ is a personality trait. In an excellent book chapter in The Cambridge Handbook of Intelligence, personality neuroscientist Colin DeYoung points out that many personality traits involve cognitive processes and abilities. It's just that IQ is primarily measured with ability tests, whereas personality tests are primarily measured with questionnaires. But this is more a reflection of a lack of ingenuity on the part of psychologists than a real difference in domain of human functioning.

It's theoretically possible to measure personality traits through ability tests. For instance, agreeableness could be measured through tests of perspective taking, conscientiousness could be measured through tests of self-control, and neuroticism could be measured through measures of emotional self-regulation. Viewing IQ as a personality trait is helpful because it puts IQ in perspective. We can take a birds eye view of all the many fascinating ways we differ from one another in cognitive processing, emotion, and motivation, while seeing where IQ fits into that bigger picture.

To help us see that picture, I analyzed data from the Eugene-Springfield community sample, which consisted of 478 mostly White participants from Eugene and Springfield, Oregon. Participants ranged in age from 20 to 85 years, and spanned all levels of educational attainment. The sample consisted of 199 males and 279 females. While the sample isn't ethnically diverse, it does have a pretty good range of IQ and personality, so we can get some sense of how IQ relates to personality in the general population. The IQ test that participants took consisted of 15 multiple-choice items that measured knowledge and abstract reasoning. The personality testmeasured 45 dimensions of human personality.

Consistent with prior research, IQ was most strongly related to openness to experience. Out of 9 dimensions of openness to experience, 8 out of 9 were positively related to IQ: intellectual engagement, intellectual creativity, mental quickness, intellectual competence, introspection, ingenuity, intellectual depth, and imagination. Interestingly, IQ was much more strongly related to intellectual engagement and mental quickness than imagination, ingenuity, or intellectual depth, and IQ was not related to sensitivity to beauty.

Out of 45 dimensions of personality, 23 dimensions were not related to IQ. This included gregariousness, friendliness, assertiveness, poise, talkativeness, social understanding, warmth, pleasantness, empathy, cooperation, sympathy, conscientiousness, efficiency, dutifulness, purposefulness, cautiousness, rationality, perfectionism, calmness, impulse control, imperturbability, cool-headedness, and tranquility. These qualities were not directly relevant to IQ.

8 dimensions of personality outside the openness to experience domain were positively related to IQ, including organization, toughness, provocativeness, leadership, self-disclosure, emotional stability, moderation, and happiness-- although the correlations were much smaller than with intellectual engagement and mental quickness. IQ was negatively related to orderliness, morality, nurturance, tenderness, and sociability, but again, the negative correlations were much smaller than the relationships among IQ, intellectual engagement, and mental quickness.

Given this data, where does IQ fit into the personality puzzle? While this is just a single dataset, it is consistent with other studies suggesting that the most relevant personality domain is openness to experience, particularly the dimensions that reflect the ability and drive for conscious exploration of inner mental experience. This is certainly an important slice of personality, but at the same time these findings illustrate that there are many more ways we differ from each other in cognition, emotion, and motivation that are not well measured by IQ tests.

Note: Thanks to Colin DeYoung for providing me with the Eugene-Springfield dataset. For more correlations between IQ and personality, see the supplementary data [1, 2] for the paper "From madness to genius: The openness/intellect trait domains as a paradoxical simplex", authored by Colin DeYoung, Rachael Grazioplene, and Jordan Peterson.

If you're interested in the finer details of my analysis, see below. Correlations with IQ in parentheses. * = p < .05; ** = p < .01. Note that I changed some of the IPIP AB5Cfacet names to better reflect the content of the items.[1]

for more detailed tables you can check this How Does IQ Relate to Personality?

Footnotes

[1] How Does IQ Relate to Personality?

Why were the Cisco exam dumps removed from the examcollection site?

Answer

It is clear that CISCO Taken defensive measures against examcollection:

where Cisco officials say before they are well aware of the problem and are tackling it on many levels, from changes in the tests that minimize cheating, to penalties levied against individual cheaters and legal actions against braindump sites.[1]

This link has the court documents with date June 26, 2015:

https://ecf.ctd.uscourts.gov/cgi...

Footnotes

[1] Cisco tackles certification exam cheating

How can I become a freelance network engineer?

Answer

You’re at a crossroads.

You’re good at your job, you’re respected by your colleagues, and you enjoy your work.

But you think about freedom and independence – being your own boss with the benefits that brings. But it’s tempered by that one obvious thought – how would I fare without a salaried income?

Here’s the good news – becoming a successful freelance engineer is more realistic than you may expect.

You have two distinct advantages. You’re an engineer, and that means you know how to plan. And, here’s the breakthrough, you now have immediate access to projects through kkooee, a new crowdsourcing site for engineers.

To help you make the leap, we’ve compiled six crucial steps to becoming an independent freelance engineer:

Reach your decision point

You need to feel comfortable making the decision. Talk it over with your family and friends. Why do you want to become an independent consultant? What advantages will it have over salaried employment? You will have the confidence to succeed once you’ve thought about it, talked it over and made your choice.

Assess market needs and determine your offering

Think about your current job. What truly unique value do you bring to a project?

This is your ticket to success in the consulting world.

New freelance engineering consultants can make two mistakes:

1) They market unrealistically diverse skill sets

2) They fail to focus on their differentiated niche skills

Focus on your most developed skills and your most tangible value-add; don’t pretend to be an expert at everything because the market wants specialists.

Seek advice from your network

This is vital and it’s easy. Speak with the people in your professional world who know you best.

Talk with them about your ideas and goals. Ask them for feedback.

You need to work out how your skills and experience can best work in the freelance engineering world. This information will help you determine the best way to market your skills.

Don’t discount the value of your network; the best advice you will receive on your road to becoming an independent freelance engineer may come from these discussions – and it may only cost you a cup of coffee.

Create a solid business plan

Becoming an independent engineering consultant means you will run your own business. Just as you can’t construct a bridge without a design, you can’t run a business without a business plan. After you decide what services you will offer, determine the rate you’ll charge, how (and where) you’ll operate, and the types of key clients you will target.

Be realistic about your goals, schedule, and overhead. Prepare a business plan (you can find plenty of great examples online), and ask for feedback from friends and colleagues. Make sure you seek legal and accounting advice when establishing your business, including insurance.

Update your resume and LinkedIn profile

No matter the client, you will always be asked for your resume. Often, your resume is the key factor in a client’s decision to engage you. So it makes sense to source a professional to update your resume. Crowdsourcing sites like fiverr are great for this.

Your resume is your most important marketing collateral, and your LinkedIn profile can be also be critical. Update it, upload a professional photo, join groups, follow clients, and stay active. Active contributors on LinkedIn can market themselves to an enormous number of people by participating in group discussions and posting relevant content. The only person who can sell you is you. LinkedIn can be a powerful selling tool.

Create profiles on freelancing websites for engineers

Freelancing and crowdsourcing websites are an increasingly accepted mechanism for sourcing and delivering services, so take the time to explore the work available on them. Sites like UpWork and Freelancer have become the accepted standard in tech-savvy industries like marketing and web design. kkooee is the only freelancing website dedicated solely to engineering services. Being a first mover on a website like kkooee will allow you to increase your global profile and will open you to a world of global opportunities before others even realize these opportunities are available. kkooee offers engineering jobs across a range of engineering disciplines, sectors and countries.

Countless professionals have made the leap to independent consulting before you, so reach out to them. Incorporate those learnings into your business plan. Endless opportunities await; all you have to do is make the leap. [1]

Footnotes

[1] Become a Freelance Engineer

Why do we need CCNA?

Answer 

When you talk about building a career in IT, the first thing that pops up in your mind is software. But the truth is that today hardware and networking jobs are among the topmost career fields that young professionals are looking at. And when the word ‘networking’ is on your mind, then it is none other than Cisco networks. Taking up the CCNA certification and training course assures a high level of knowledge in computer systems. More importantly, a CCNA course proves that you are well-skilled and trained under Cisco Systems, which is a worldwide leader in the IT domain. Read further to learn why you should do CCNA, which is one of the renowned and best IT courses in the world.

• Why should you do a CCNA course?

Doing a CCNA course not only provides knowledge and skills but also offers a ticket to success. It means that the moment your resume has a CCNA certification course by an authorized Cisco learning center such as Jetking, the best multinational companies would be glad to have you onboard. As a CCNA candidate, you would get a job faster than any other individual. Those who specialize in the various courses offered by CCNA have better job opportunities.
The industry requirement for CCNA certified people has increased. Today, recruiters are looking for competent individuals who have an edge over others. They seek those certified networking professionals who have an advanced knowledge of protocols. Once you receive this high-grade recognition, you will get the confidence to opt for better career prospects. In fact, you will observe that with the right efforts and dedication, you would be able to excel in your field.[1]

Footnotes

[1] The scope of jobs after completing the CCNA course |

Is learning to code for 10 hours a day a good idea?

Answer

I do not think so because, after few days you will feel boring…but for more details about how you can learn to code fast read the following article:

Whether you’re currently pursuing a degree in computer science, an aspiring self-taught developer, or a coding boot camp student, mastering the craft of programming is a perpetual struggle. To assist in your learning – courtesy of the Coding Dojo instructors – here are seven tips on how to learn to program faster.

1. Learn by doing. Always play with the code while learning

With every new subject, the sooner you start playing with the code, the faster you will learn the given concepts. Even if you blaze through an entire chapter of reading and a topic like for loops seems straightforward – so straightforward even a monkey could do it – you’ll still be scratching your head when tasked to implement the code for the first time. You’ll think, “wait, what was that one piece of syntax again?” As the saying goes, you need to “use it or lose it”, because, despite the evolution of technology, this ole’ proverb holds true when learning to code.

Hint: Build a project as you go through the material. A personal project is often the best starting point.

2. Grasp the fundamentals for long-term benefits

As elementary as they may appear at first, programming fundamentals always need to come first: the better you understand them, the easier it is to learn more advanced concepts. From our experience at Coding Dojo, students who rush through the beginning of our software Bootcamp – where our course focuses mostly on web development fundamentals – are often the first to get stuck as we transition into more advanced material, such as back-end programming. So before you ditch the first class of computer science 101, or skip chapter one of an online tutorial, keep in mind that you are overlooking the most important step in your learning.

Hint: Read this great article about the 5 Basic Concepts of Any Programming Language

3. Code by hand. It sharpens proficiency and you’ll need it to get a job

Computer monitors become thinner, hard drives lighter, and programming languages more powerful, but coding-by-hand still remains one of the most effective methods to learn how to program. Be it on a whiteboard or notebook, coding-by-hand requires further caution, precision, and intent behind every line of code. Because unlike on a computer, you can’t run hand-written code midway through the sheet to check if the work is correct. Although more time consuming, this restriction will mold you into a more fundamentally sound developer, both in the classroom and the job market. For college exams and technical interviews – a critical component of the job interview process – you will have to code-by-hand, because not only is this good for learning, but it’s universally known to be the ultimate test for a programmer’s proficiency. So start early and get used to this old-school practice.

4. Ask for help. You’ll need it

As awesome as it would be to become the next Steve Jobs on your own, the reality is that people learn faster with mentors and peer feedback. What may seem like an immovable bug or an unlearnable topic could be quickly alleviated by a fresh pair of eyes or a new interpretation of the subject. Whether it’s online or in-person, ignore the trolls and don’t be afraid to ask for help, because every programmer has been in your shoes before. Besides, most developers love to code, and if there’s one thing that passionate individuals enjoy, it’s to share their knowledge with others.

Word of Warning: At Coding Dojo we suggest using the 20-minute rule. Take at least 20 minutes to figure something out on your own before asking for help. There’s a good chance that the answer is already in front of you, and besides, struggling makes you a better programmer overall.

Hint: Stackoverlfow and reddit’s learn programming subreddit are gold mines for online programming assistance.

5. Seek out more online resources. There’s a wealth of content

If a particular concept doesn’t make sense, be it on code academy, in a textbook, or during the class lecture, maintain your confidence and look for alternate online resources to learn the same content. Everyone learns differently, and just because one source doesn’t make sense, doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you. It means that you’re not clicking with the delivery of the material. The online resources to learn computer programming are endless, and there’s always a Reddit post, youtube tutorial, or blog explanation that will make the material-at-hand crystal clear.

Hint: Don’t underestimate the power of google search.

6. Don’t just read the sample code. Tinker with it!

Reading sample code is not enough to understand how it works. To develop a true understanding, you need to actually run the code and tinker with it. With the additions of comments and instructions, sample code is packaged to be easily digestible by the reader; but in reality, it’s pretty difficult to replicate from scratch. Reading is not the same as understanding, and actually trying to write the code yourself, or at least running it, will facilitate the learning process much more.

7. Take breaks when debugging

When debugging, it’s easy to go down the rabbit hole for hours, and there’s no guarantee that you will fix the problem. To avoid this, it’s best to step away from the bug for a few hours and return with a fresh perspective. Not only is this a guaranteed way to help solve the problem, but you’ll also save yourself hours of a headache. So if help isn’t available – to touch on our previous tip about seeking advice – consider taking a break to clear your mind and return later. In the meantime, the bug won’t be going anywhere, and you’ll at least restore some needed sanity to improve productivity.

Conclusion: Keep Calm and Keep On Coding

Despite these 7 tips, the most important ingredient to learn to program faster is to remain confident. To do so, you should expect to fail repeatedly and be patient with your progress; because becoming an expert at anything requires hard work and time. And if a single doubt ever clouds your mind, remember that every programmer has walked this path before – none of them more destined to become a developer than you. Whichever path you are currently on, be it college or coding boot camp, the only barrier to success is your work ethic and confidence to persevere.[1]

Footnotes

[1] 7 Critical Tips to Learn Programming Faster - #3 Will Land You a Job