CS50 An Introduction Into Computer Science Review (Lecture 0)
Day 194
Where I am now…
As of the time of writing this blog, I've been on my coding journey for 764.35hrs across 194 days, with an average time spent coding a day of 3.9 hours.
At this point, I feel like I have a very good understanding of HTML and CSS, and a decent understanding of javascript.
My DOM manipulation skills have come a long way over the last couple of months, (shout out to YouTube!), and I've built several projects I'm proud of.
Including this blog site and landing page clones of Netflix and Microsoft. Thankfully, I'm nowhere near a burnout, but rather, I feel like I'm just getting started. Let's go!
The next logical step for me at this point is learning data structures and algorithms, then SQL, React and finally node.js.
I'll be actively applying for jobs when I'm comfortable with React, centering that learning around a capstone project.
That’s not to say I'm not open to opportunities coming my way, including internships that will fast track my learning and practical experience right now, so if you're a recruiter or potential employer - I'd love to hear from you!
But before I move into the vast and challenging study of data structures and algorithms, I've realised I have some gaps in my core computer science knowledge.
As I'm 100% self-taught, the core of my study material has been Udemy courses and YouTube. Which, on one hand, has been incredible.
But, I also need to be honest and say it’s left me feeling like I don't have a rock-solid foundation in some crucial programming approaches. Such as problem solving ‘the right way’ and design patterns to name a few.
I want to be the best web developer I can be. I definitely didn't start this journey to end up just being mediocre. The goal is to become a full stack web developer and at this point, that requires going back to ground zero. Enter CS50…
The Review
After doing some research and discovering that CS50 is billed as one of the best introductory courses into computer science in the world, I had to jump right in. After all, this is what I said I was looking for, right?
I found the CS50 2020 lectures on Youtube after looking around on their website. And I gotta say, I loved what I saw.
This was the course I was looking for! So I committed to the entire series of lectures to get the foundation I so desperately need. Here's a glimpse of what CS50 offers, taken straight from their website…
"CS50: Introduction to Computer Science" Learn more here.
So far, I've watched lecture 0 And guess what? It was fantastic! David J. Malan's (the lecturer) energy is unrelenting. He just keeps going and going for over an hour, giving you everything he's got.
You can tell the man really loves what he does, as his passion for the subject comes through in every word he speaks. In addition to his contagious energy and great charisma, he's a brilliant communicator and has a knack for explaining advanced concepts in easily digestible terms. Making computer science fun, relatable and very understandable for anyone new coming into the field. Perfect for me!
Lecture 0 is just an introduction as to what CS50 is. First, you get a history tour of how programming languages came to be. All the way from machine code, 1s and 0s to more human-like languages like C python etc. He emphasises that solving one small problem at a time, and then stacking their solutions on top of each other has given computer science the building blocks to solve huge real-world problems today.
He then goes on to explain what makes up a computer, what abstraction is and other basic truths and concepts of computer science.
To conclude, it was a fun introductory lecture to the course, and I'll be blogging about each lecture going forward - so check back soon.
Until next time, have a wonderful day and keep sane while debugging.