I have worked independently for over a decade., so I often factor in time for study in my regular work schedule, but at times I have also taken longer breaks.
One I too about a year off on a startup idea I had. It did not work out, but I learned some important lessons.
I have also taken 3 months off to be part of a startup accelerator as a fellow. I did not have any product, but just spend my time working on a few experiments / prototypes and generally helping other teams wherever I could.
The ideas experimented did become my startup, which I have been working on since the past year or so. It is actually related to peer based learning (http://diycomputerscience.com/), so I am hoping that learning will be an integral part of working for me.
I think self directed learning is far better than going back to school. You can pic and choose and curate the exact learning experiences you want.
Don't mean to self promote, but you are welcome to be part of the free peer learning community on http://diycomputerscience.com/ You might actually like the 'Elements of Computing Systems' course a lot.
I second the idea of creating a portfolio of work as a blog. I have done this and it lead to several opportunities for training workshops and consulting.
I just realized that the title is misleading. It should have been "Getting knowledge worth a CS degree without going to school - An unusual challenge". I have changed the title in the blog, but cannot change it here. Sorry for the confusion.
You are right, a person does not earn an official degree. But it is still possible to establish credentials to find employment, or use the knowledge to create your own startup.
Thank you very much for your excellent feedback and for giving your time and effort. You have made very important observations. I will address all these concerns as I move ahead with the development.
Some time back I started working on a DIY learning solution for Computer Science. It is based on the concept of peer based social learning.
The website has courses which are a collection of material, forums, and activities. Participants consume the information, ask/answer questions, submit responses to activities, and even review other participant's responses.
There are no certificates, but whatever a participant does is made available in their profile and is their credentials.
I will really appreciate if you can take a look at the website and offer me suggestions on how I can offer the participant's a better learning experience.
I know it may not be much consolation, but many people go through such phases at least once (or even more) in their life.
Think of it as a phase, which will leave you more skilled and happy when it's done.
When passing through a phase of feeling worthless, it is common to become inundated with things and not being able to take tasks to completion. The trick is to set small achievable goals. Make goals that will take no more than a couple of hours to couple of days to accomplish (start small if you can). Every time you complete something, cross it off your list. Every time you cross an item, it will give you a feeling of accomplishment and confidence.
Try using the Pomodoro technique to stay focused. It has helped a lot of people (myself included), and it may help you too.
I have a website for peer based learning of various computer science topics. I will be glad if it helps you in any way. You can check it out at http://diycomputerscience.com/
Remember that such phases often happen to bring about growth, and you will come out of this better off.
From someone who has actually been there and is getting close to 40, first define what success means to you.
I too burned myself out around when I was 30, got ulcers and Chrohns disease (still have it but it's manageable now), and kept on see-sawing between falling ill and working like crazy.
My experience is that too much stress makes the body susceptible to many ills, and is just not worth it.
What does success mean to you?
- Is is accumulation of wealth ?
- Is it a social projection (people perceiving you as successful) ?
- Is it the satisfaction of having lived a positive, constructive and happy life ?
I cannot say for everyone, but I feel that wealth is important to a certain extent, but beyond a threshold it does not matter a whole lot. Same goes for social projection, but to an even lesser degree. On the other hand if you figure out what truly makes you happy, and what gifts you have, which you can use to lead a positive and constructive life, then success and happiness is in the fact that you are doing what you really want to do.
From someone who has actually been there and is getting close to 40, first define what success means to you.
I too burned myself out around when I was 30, got ulcers and Chrohns disease (still have it but it's manageable now), and kept on see-sawing between falling ill and working like crazy.
My experience is that too much stress makes the body susceptible to many ills, and is just not worth it.
What does success mean to you?
- Is is accumulation of wealth ?
- Is it a social projection (people perceiving you as successful) ?
- Is it the satisfaction of having lived a positive, constructive and happy life ?
I cannot say for everyone, but I feel that wealth is important to a certain extent, but beyond a threshold it does not matter a whole lot. Same goes for social projection, but to an even lesser degree. On the other hand if you figure out what truly makes you happy, and what gifts you have, which you can use to lead a positive and constructive life, then success and happiness is in the fact that you are doing what you really want to do.
Thanks to everyone for your great comments, and for enrolling in the course. I have been looking to learn something like this from a long time, but lacked the community to be able to learn with peers.
That, and a desire to make a little contribution to the state of learning & education prompted me to create diycomputerscience.com
There were over a 100 registrations in the past day.
Thanks to everyone... you guys really made my day !
Using the pieces you built as you move along is a great idea, and an opportunity to understand the optimizations required to make them performant.
I think one reason, why they may insist is because, the basic pieces you built will be in HDL, while if you use the ones provided by the software, they will be in the form of compiled Java code. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why the books pieces will be faster/
He is using a lot of abstractions, and is focusing on building something which will introduce the main concepts of 'Computer Architecture', 'Compilers', and 'OS'.
A student taking this course will be building something very simple, but grasping the main concepts in the process.
I think the real beauty of this book is that the simple implementations can be a segue into exploring those concepts in greater detail (if one gets interested in them) ...
Doing something you enjoy is wonderful, but it may take a while for it to start generating revenue. I think if you persist then it certainly will generate revenues.
Since you mention Android development... I believe there are people who are making a good amount of money with Android apps. However, it may or may not come near what a large financial company pays you.
My basic thoughts are:
1. It will take some time to start generating decent revenues, so be prepared to have patience
2. Many people who work on Android apps report their monthly income on the Internet. You may find such articles very useful
3. If you enjoy teaching, you could teach Android courses on the Internet or in a local college. This will help pay your bills while you are making your apps.
4. Try and be cashflow positive. Even if you are not making a lot of money initially, try and make sure that you do not start eating your savings. This will increase the overall sustainability of your venture. Doing some consulting, teaching on the side can help.
That's unfortunately how much of college education had begun. Unfortunately (this is a guess), but I think the problem has come into being because of many universities' desire to scale up. With scaling up the number of students, it has become impossible to give quality attention to the students and encourage interaction.
Recently I decided to do a Do-It-Yourself masters in computer science, using open courseware and social learning. It's an experiment, and I am also hoping to learn a few new things. So far I have had a great time, because I can learn at my own pace, and follow concept leads which I think will be useful.