Why is MIT's open courseware so impossibly hard?
Do you really need to have some talent to be good in CS?
Everything I had to learn in maths from high school to college (shitty, a little above high school tier maths) I already forgot. I simply never fully understood it. I was looking through some first-year MIT calculus course and I can't really understand even that. Derivations, integrals... I just learned formulas and managed to pass. Never succeeded in understanding it.
>>54362411
you're not gonna make it lmao
You are fucking retarded
>>54362411
>why are they so hard
>I just learned the formulas and managed to pass
There's your answer retard.
Go learn your math and try again.
>>54362411
We were taught calc I and II in high school.
>>54362411
You don't go to MIT to learn the basics you silly...
From day 1 you are expected to be at least as proficient as a graduate from most other universities.
>>54362411
>Do you really need to have some talent to be good in CS?
You have to have talent to be good at most things you fucking retard.
>>54362500
This is the dumbest thing I've read all day.
>>54362500
You're a moron.
>>54362411
its not it just requires you to use some insight. For each new concept you learn that you don't understand, identify the parts which confuse you and in order research those parts in order to better your understanding of the concept
>>54362411
Bad news OP. You are literally retarded.
I should probably change my studies, I'm far too behind.
>>54362585
>>54362650
>le batthert
>>54362435
This.
>>54362411
Its not exactly polished but it is plenty functional.
I havent had trouble figuring it out. Hell I think they have a tutorial.
>>54363585
>damage control
>>54362411
git gud.
if you're too shit at CS and still want to work in IT you can always get into networking and just get good enough at linux and python for automation
CS isn't for everyone desu
Don't fall for the MIT/Ivy league meme
>>54362411
You should try Khan academy. Lots of public high schools aren't really good enough to give you the foundations required to understand MIT Open Courseware. Khan academy isn't as high calibre but it will fill in the gaps. Then you can go back to the MIT material and be able to follow.
Sources: this is what I did
>>54363714
I'm actually a web babby, but didn't need much math for that. I forgot pretty much everything I had on a first year and that was basically it. It's not a job worth doing if I don't learn more math and algorithms by myself, since I can't accept doing brain dead labor. I'm not a retard, but I don't believe I have a talent for maths either. Honestly, In high school I had a promising career and talent in something else so I never really cared about other things much, but now that it is gone I'm either stuck with web design and development (pajeet tier), hopefully some more advanced web dev (if I learn the fundamental CS stuff by myself), or I should switch to something else completely after I finish this last year of bachelors. 21 years old, already feel I fucked up everything and should an hero. Oh well...
You need a little talent to go to MIT
>>54363731
I was thinking about it again today. I lack some fundamentals. My high school was more humanistic then maths heavy and I never really learned in-depth what the fuck am I actually doing in math. It was all just formulas for practically everyone. And of course, "what you dont use, you lose". I forgot formulas and it left me with a blank page.
Have you guys heard about this guy?
https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/myprojects/mit-challenge-2/
He went through a whole MIT OCW undergraduate studies in a year.
>>54363585
>a MIT nigger
topfuckingkek
>>54362411
CS really doesn't matter. Math does. CS is just a mathy way of showing why your code is theoretically better then somebody else's in size/space efficiency. Most employers who place an extreme focus on CS will write in programming languages that are so dog shit slow you need to have a Ph.Dank in Comp Sci to get operation to take <5 seconds.
Most CS theory applies to an **ideal** computer, i.e.: one that doesn't exist. Modern SoC's shit on CS theory because of hardware cache subsystems. Every get white boarded by somebody asking you how to do a bunch of weird operations on linked lists? Just walk out, they're not worth your trouble a lot of idiots trying to justify why they spent 4-5 years in a university. When you encounter university try hards just remember a lot of fun algorithms to piss them off like Counting Sort. Which O(n) time efficiency and O(universe) space efficient. Or just napkin something together with Hash Tables as they rage at you.
TL;DR Just learn calc
My last interview (didn't get job)
>Hey anon how do I check for loops within a linked list?
Uhh transverse the list, insert the next pointer of each node into a BTree, see if you collide before finishing the list transverse. Space efficiency is List-length*Pointer Size
>Well that is not the classical way, do you know that?
Oh you mean have 1 reader move half as a slow as another and compare their locations? That can take multiple transverses of the list to find a loop. Really if we used a Vector we'd avoid caching issues AND the possibility of loops. It is more space efficient but do we care about RAM usage these days?
>Well its just an exercise.
That has nothing to do with the work I'll be doing or the machines my code will run on?
>>54364214
Interesting reply, thanks for your time (and also for not just attaching a meme picture).
>>54362411
>what are derivations and integrals
This takes a day to understand comprehensively, come on just read a book or look it up, no way it seriously trips you up.
I'll be honest and most of my true fundamental understanding of calculus came partly from HS physics because my teacher was great and partly from university which finally gave me complete problems which when solved from begging to end tied it all together. Before that it was just applying techniques mindlessly, most of the questions I'd get where just "differentiate this: ...". Probably is why maths exams where always the ones we walked out of well before the time was up.
>>54364214
>question that has nothing to do with the work I'll be doing
>didn't get the job
Unsurprising, probably thought creative/unconventional problem solving was some kind of sarcastic answer, even after all the bs about "taking the initiative" and "fresh ideas" or "excellent problem solving skills".
>>54364484
That was exacty the problem in high school (well and that first year of college). Just a mindless solving with formulas. You see variables - you put them in a formula - solve - done. A good mentor is very important, yes. I didn't have really good ones. Actually, it seems unbelievable, but the first time I actually realized what is the real usage of derivations was today from that MIT lecture. It's amazing. I'll have to check out some good source since my books are shitty though. When I look back, it's similar with physics, although there were topics I genuinely understood, but later on I lost interest in it and now I can't remember almost anything too.
>>54364647
I don't known if its any use, but I'll suggest Engineering Mathematics by K.A. Stroud. If you can find it in your library its worth a look since it covers everything from the extreme basics (literally how2add) all the way to what I would expect any MIT freshman to be capable of. There's also Advanced Engineering Mathematics, but I doubt you'll need it for CS.
Good thing about it is there are some practical applications all with worked examples and the layout is very good so it helps solidify concepts well.
The pace of the book is good, you might find its better than going to lectures sometimes.
You can probably guess I do engineering by now.
>>54365099
Sounds great, thanks, appreciate it, man.
>>54365129
No worries, I almost failed my all my maths exams in my first year, I've been through the pain.
Nobody likes to study and work if they can get away with it but god damn it feels good when it finally all clicks, you'll remember it forever after that.
