#Computer Programming Classes

[heretic-altias]

I don’t usually talk about coding on main, but I really think people would enjoy it more if they were taught what they could do as well as how to code. Like you can build anything. Anything at all you could possibly want. Programming can be a creative medium for the logically minded, and coding classes almost never actually embrace that.

I’ve built so many projects just from silly jokes. Made a whole joke text adventure game about being trapped in an elevator with some game characters. The discord bots I maintain to this day started as “haha what if [Game NPC] was in our server”. If an idea strikes me as fun I’ll code it, the same way an artist will draw a silly doodle or a writer will write a funny joke fic. It’s not just a get a job skill, you actively create things with code. So create! And have fun doing it!

I really think that’s the secret to truly enjoying programming. I love it, it’s a passion of mine. And it’s all because my first teacher set me free to create with it. He would let me expand on assignments however I wanted when I finished early and encouraged exploring what else I could do. If more people taught coding like that, I think there would be so many more who shared my passion for it.

[cathoderaymission]

graduated high school today and drew my creature to commemorate. i got into yttd around my freshman year so its like we graduated together lol

[katzensilber]

Man, this is why I always hated math class.

Khan Academy gave me this easy (or so I thought) problem to solve:

"A factory makes toys that are sold for $10 a piece. The factory has 40 workers, and they each produce 25 toys a day. The factory is open 5 days a week. What is the total value of toys the factory produces in a day?"

I said to myself, okay...

10 times 40 times 25 equals 10,000. That means the factory produces $10,000 worth of value per WORKING day.

10,000 times 5 equals 50,000. And then there are two days per week (the weekend) when no value is produced. So, per week, the total value produced is still only $50,000.

And finally, there are seven days in a full week, so $50,000 divided by 7 equals roughly $7,142.86. That's the total value of toys produced per day. Not "per work day", but "per day", as it specifically says in the problem.

But what does the teacher say as he guides us through it? 10 times 40 times 25 equals 10,000, so the answer is 10,000.

That's it. The end.

He even acknowledges: "So, you might be thinking, 'Hey wait, we didn't use all the information! We didn't use the "five days per week" information!' And yeah, as it turns out, that was information we didn't need."

'As it turns out'?! Are you kidding me right now?! I carefully read the question, precisely calculated exactly what it was asking for, taking all of the provided information into account... and now you're saying I'm supposed to have somehow magically known to ignore one of those pieces of information in order to make it easier for myself?

Just admit that your problem is worded badly, dude. UGH this kind of shit drives me crazy. Why can't people use words clearly >:(

[dreamdolldiary]

My Personal Coding Journal Notion 🍂☕️🪵

I'm kickstarting my reunion with coding by being organized! and with this field importantly, I want to track all my progress, notes and all the resources I find all in one place and this is what it looks like!

It includes:

My notes on each language HTML, CSS, Java...

Keeping track of when I start specific tutorials, courses, etc.

Free courses

Bootcamps I am researching

Resources to books

A personal FAQ

and more as I continue!

(click for a better view)

A quick peek inside the "Notes"

I haven't started it but this is how it'll be formatted:

happy coding and long life learning! ⊹｡ꕤ˚₊⊹

[nando161mando]

[hoarder-of-dragons]

ive been coding for an assigment due tomorrow (worth 3 marks not worth it), and I just realized why it was not working...

IVE BEEN WORKING ON A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT CLASS UNDER THE SAME NAME!!

NO WONDER IM GETTING "0" THE OG CODE IS RETURNING NULL IM SO FUCKING STUPID

[galaxymagitech]

Proof by "I coded it"

[jaevy]

i have GOT to be the cuntiest person in my game art class

[brown-little-robin]

AUGH

[screambirdscreaming]

Much could be said interrogating the concept of "gifted kid burnout" or "smart kid syndrome" or whatever you call it, and much of it's been said better than I can

But what gets to me about it sometimes is that.... I feel like people have described a reasonable concept and then related themselves to it backwards. Or taken a real problem and constructed their concept of it backwards.

Like yeah, it does kind of fuck a person up to be highly rewarded in this extremely arbitrary constructed environment, which incidentally is where you spend most of your waking hours, while being told that it's all deeply related to your excellence and worth as a person. And then when you leave that constructed environment, you fall apart and fail to function in all sorts of ways, because you've built your skills to so completely rely on that environment (while being told this is the best most excellent thing you could do and the best most valuable way to be).

And it basically leaves a person with several options:

1) cling tighter to the structure that validates you. Dedicate yourself to reaffirming that the structure itself is meaningful to reinforce it's ability to impart meaning back to you. Spend your whole life running from failure.

2) realize that you can't keep up with the demands, but construct this as either a personal failing or a failing of the system to train you well enough. Keep seeking sources of validation to replace the hole in your sense of self-worth where being special used to go.

3) realize that the whole thing was kind of a scam from the start. Being ranked is bad. Proving value is bad. Learn to do things and enjoy things without having to be good at them or prove something.

And the thing is that I think option 3 is necessary to actually be at peace with yourself as a person. (And also, it's necessary to find true solidarity with people who were fucked up by the same system on the opposite end, being told they *weren't* good enough. Which is worse. The fact that that's worse doesn't mean I can't or won't talk about how this one sucks, but if you can't acknowledge that that one's worse, I think that's a problem.)

Anyway. Probably I'm barking up entirely the wrong tree, because the whole concept of "gifted burnout" is basically the domain of people who are stuck on option 2. And it's not like I don't see tons of stuff aimed at "it's ok to be bad at things! Enjoy it anyway!" Like that message is very much out there and in ways that I can infer to mean other people are also wrangling with this same stuff.

The problem is. Sometimes I have a problem and this type of framing is the only way I have to get at it. Sometimes I take a class where I accidentally fall into the role of being the Whizz Kid, and it's a weird sort of adrenaline hit, where being Good At The Thing feels really good and important but it takes up too much of my brainspace and I find myself more easily frustrated and it's harder to find contentment. And then I have to unpick that whole thing and walk it back and remind myself that it literally doesn't matter to be good at the thing. It's just a thing and you're just some guy and you can engage with the actual world rather than the abstract field of Showing Off Land. Like it's this whole other plane of social interaction, which may or may not exist - as in, no one else in the room is necessarily there with you, sending or receiving any signals on that frequency - but you can get stuck there. And it feels bad to be stuck there, constantly sending out "look aren't I special?" and getting upset if you don't recieve back enough pings of "wow you're so special." What is this bullshit? I don't want to be that guy. I don't like that it runs so deeply in me that it can be activated by accident.

Sometimes I do something that turns out pretty well and I want to be regular proud of it but I find myself ping-ponging between thinking I'm amazing and unprecedented and thinking that actually it's probably stupid and all sorts of people can do it - and what sort of fucked up value scale is that? It turned out pretty good and that's neat. It doesn't matter how *common* it is, that isn't anything. If it's worth doing it's worth there being plenty of it.

Like it's fine. It's fine. I've learned to recognize it and I know how to combat it so I walk myself back out of it. It just also kind of sucks. And sometimes, I wish I had an easy way to vent about it, without falling into the whole circlejerk of people coming up with backhanded ways to tell each other they're still special enough. Rather than actually deeply accepting that it's ok that you're not any better than other people.

You are just some guy! Huzzah!

[femme-foucault]

Me before my part time substitute teaching/glorified baby gig: I really hope I get the high schoolers and not the littles

After 1 English class on Romeo and Juliet and one general AP humanities class and being assigned a summer camp assistant counselor job for three afternoons: THANK GOD IM WATCHING FOUR-SIX YEAR OLDS!!!

[cs-med-world-insights]

How to get into Coding!

Coding is very important now and in the future. Technology relies on coding and in the future you will need to know how to code to get a high-paying job. Many people consider having Computer Science field-related jobs, especially in AI. What if you are interested it in general or as a hobby? What if you don't know what you want to do yet for college?

Pick a language you want to learn: Personally, I started out with HTML and CSS. I recommend if you want to do web design HTML and CSS are good languages to start with. Otherwise, start with JavaScript or Python.

2. Find Resources: Basically you want to look at videos on YouTube, and take classes that have coding like AP CSP, AP CS A (harder class), Digital Information Technology, etc. You can also attend classes outside in the summer like CodeNinjas and use websites like code.org, freeCodeCamp, and Codecademy. Also, ask your friends for help too! You can find communities on Reddit and Discord as well.

3. Start Practicing: Practice slowly by doing small projects like making games for websites and apps. You can work with friends if you are still a beginner or need help. There's also open-source coding you can do!

4. Continue coding: If you don't continue, you will lose your skills. Be sure to always look up news on coding and different coding languages.

5. Certifications: If you are advanced in coding or want to learn more about technology, you can do certifications. This can cost a lot of money depending on what certification you are doing. Some school districts pay for your certification test. But if you take the test and pass, you can put it on your resume, and job recruiters/interviewers will be impressed! This can help with college applications and show initiative if you want a computer science degree. This shows you are a "master" of the language.

[orcelito]

Had a moment of listening to music I liked back when I was a teenager (& still like) and having a whole. Realization . That I like myself as I am now sooooo much better than I like teenage me. And I started thinking about Why.

There's a lot to it I'm pretty sure, & most of it centers around the fact that I just... didn't really know who I was as a person. I didn't really have hobbies outside of what I did in school (aka orchestra) and like. Video games + anime. I did creative writing in middle school, but dropped off in high school for... some reason? I still made original characters and played around with them a lot, but it was mostly just in drawing and thinking about them. I never actually *wrote*, and I in fact didn't get back into creative writing at all until I was 23 years old. I was someone who had spent so long hiding behind others and just doing what I was told that I just... didn't have any real direction. I didn't know what I even *wanted*. I thought I knew, but in hindsight, I can confidently say that I didn't. I was just an insecure teen drifting through life and not thinking about things beyond what was immediately in front of me. Which is pretty standard for teenagers I guess, but not all of them. Not at all.

Compared to now, where I have Many hobbies, most notably being writing. As I am now, I am just Intrinsically a writer. And it's weird to remember that I wasn't even really *writing* before 5 years ago (besides text rps, which did a lot for developing my writing skill! But still aren't a replacement for writing individually). As a teen, I wasnt into dnd, I was incredibly out of shape, & I was a lot less aggressive and focused. I was the type to avoid sports!!! I hated them!!!! But as I am now, I Love biking and can easily bike for an hour+ no problem (I remember being a teen and trying to go on just 10 minute bike rides in the summer and just *dying* from it), & I love working out. I wanna be strong!!! I LOVE being strong!!! And I was an absolute mess with things like public speaking & working in groups, vs now where I can do an impromptu presentation no problem & I'm often the unofficial leader in group projects bc im typically the one who does the organizing and allotments of work. A side effect of working as a supervisor and then assistant manager for so long. I have a lot more confidence in my perceptions and judgements, & I have the self-assurance to assert these things. And this is only really the tip of the iceberg with all the differences.

I just feel like an entirely different person, almost. The cores are the same, or at least damn near similar, with the things I want out of life & the sorts of things I enjoy, but it's like. The difference between finding a random rock off the side of the road & then that rock when it's been sanded and carved and decorated to be something individual and unique. You look at them side by side and it's something dull vs something shiny and intricate. The origins can't be ignored and dismissed, & I certainly would never resent younger me for just doing the best with what I knew at the time. But it's just astounding how much difference time and experience will have for growing and developing as a person. Things I consider integral to my personhood weren't even thoughts in my mind back then. We are almost entirely different people.

[freakren]

about to do a semesters worth of hw in 3 days I have GOt to lock in

[vajazzly]

classes that are only offered asynchronous remote should simply kill themselves

[lesbianstarlightglimmer]

Tbh the strangest and most concerning thing about kids that I’ve observed get steadily worse is how these kids just…don’t know how to use a computer???

Like if you put a 12-15 year old kid and my 50 something year old mom next to each other and asked them to copy and paste using a computer, both would look at me like a deer in headlights!!

And yes I know some of this is because schools just don’t really have computer classes anymore (like I had ones that taught “proper” typing, Microsoft office programs like Word and PowerPoint, etc.) but like??? Every school I’ve been to so far has had computers for students so they’re all on devices all the time yet still don’t know how to use them.

Hell, they barely know how to type a URL in! Like! Huh! I’m genuinely concerned about them not knowing how to use a computer properly and how they use it so freely without proper thought and care as to what they put out into the world.