Ask HN: Free for 3 months. Need help with plan | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Free for 3 months. Need help with plan

5 pointsdrow_away_acc6 comments

Hello HN,

I'm free for some time and want to use this time for something productive. Its like a school break (i'm 16). I have some experience in coding but its been mostly tutorial hell.

Things I am interested in : Low level stuff(systems programming?), solving problems etc

Here is a rough outline of my plan:

  WEEK 1 : python
    How : I intend to follow a book titled "Learn Python 3 the hard way"

  WEEK 2 : numPy, sciPy, pandas, scikit learn, 
    How : Not sure

  WEEK 3 : C
   How : Follow "C, the complete reference, 4th ed"

  WEEK 4 : Data structures and Algorithms
    How : Not sure

  WEEK 4,5,6 : ?

  Other projects I want to do
    - Start a personal website/blog. Static site generators such as HUGO or ZOLO seem good enough.
    - Try Linux From Scratch project. I currently use basic arch with WM. Learning the inner workings of GNU/LINUX systems sounds 
       interesting 
    - Try contribute to FOSS someday in the future 
    - Not sure

 I made this post to receive suggestions. Baseless weekly goals does not sounds like a good idea. If your were to start from scratch  
  how would you structure your learning? 

 What tools, books do you recommend to go through ?
 Please share other tech/life/general tips too.

Instead of learning how those Python modules work in a vacuum, you could pick a project that utilizes something from each of them. Pick a topic you're interested in and do a deep analysis of it using numpy, scipy, sklearn and pandas. Sprinkle a little matplotlib in there to plot the results.

For example you could scrape a bunch of data off of your favorite subreddit and do a network analysis of all the users. It'd touch on a lot of the packages you want to learn and you'd be learning them for a specific end result. You could even throw the data into Gource at the end for a cool visualization (not that it would be very instructive, but it's cool to watch).

Also it's only 3 months. Just my perspective but I think you'd get a lot more out of it by sticking to one language and learning it really well.

Oh and don't forget to write about it. Self reflection is an incredible learning tool.

I think you've set the bar too high and I'm concerned you'll burn out with this plan. I'd recommend to pick a focus area and have a project in mind. If you don't have a focus it's too easy to drift and you'll only learn superficially.

Since you mention learning python and C, I'll recommend a couple sites with problems you can work through.

https://www.reddit.com/r/dailyprogrammer/

https://projecteuler.net/ (math heavy)

I’d say keep the focus on python, try the python course on HackerRank. What kind of math background do you have? both the algorithms stuff and sk-learn would depend on that.

I’ve personally always learned better when it’s in service of building something. Pick a language (e.g. python) and build something you’d find useful or interesting.

This is the way.

It is the way to escape tutorial hell, and also the way to find the motivation to continue to learn.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com