ediko5:


You have a good point.
I think the OP made the comparism between graduates of CS from a good university and a self taught.

But seriously, CS knowledge from most Nigerian universities is a joke.

Psoul:


Of someone can learn what took you 5 years in 3 months, why should u be angry about it. And why don't u think the person will be so excited about what he learned within a very short time.

Whether 5yrs or 3mnths, the bottom line is bn good at what u after doing.

Computer applications are more of a technical thing. If you're more of a person who is naturally endowed with technical things, you'll learn computer stuff beyond what u are taught in class.

jackyraw09:


Don’t use books or courses that teach u just basics such as computing arithmetic operation using python etc. they are a waste of time and you might get bored quickly or have a false confidence in your abilities.

I Been there also, better to start learning with a hands-on approach where u solve actual problems while learning.

Use this website to learn the basics: tutorialspoint.com

As for real python coding, use : ‘automate the boring stuff’ - just google it.

And remember, once u start, you don’t stop(you learn new things always), coding is for life not only a temporary means of putting food on your table.

ARCHEMEDESME:

I'm not angry. But don't you think you're over exaggerating , you're saying you can finish a cs degree in 3 months?

Anonime1105:
You already said it,
CS degree += Programming

I guess the reason might not be far fetched from the fact that you can learn everything you learnt while studying for a CS degree outside a University, it might take more time but you can definitely learn everything outside a university setting.

So you don't necessarily need a CS degree to become a "Software Engineer"

Daejoyoung:

You can finish what you need to know in many cases, and what is important for the IT job you want in 3 months.

wwwtortoise:


Greetings Sir !

Please recommend a user-friendly online platform where I can learn Python for free.

I used codecademy but the free version is limited to only the intro and basics.

PS: I am presently doing my NYSC and eagerly want to learn programming.

Regards.

Microwhy:

Good to hear..
Reverse engineering is an invention in itself. All we have around is modifications, so if you can analyse how a particular system is being put together, it is very easy to modify and improve its output..
Cyber security is a good niche I became interested when i followed Edward Snowdon case but its too late for me to dive in.
Embedded system and cyber physical system is my thing but Nigeria is making it difficult to work privately.
Its hard to get almost everything you need without ordering from abroad. Getting a good PCB company to print out your sketch work is also something else.
Covid-19 is truly a eye opener.

All I am doing is to twist your brain that programming is just a small part of computing science.

iamwhat:

You talk like Oshiomole, even Osho Baba talks more sense than you..... Why don't you finish it in 3 days?

Daejoyoung:

You can finish what you need to know in many cases, and what is important for the IT job you want in 3 months.
For example if I need a frontend job only, all I need to get an entry level position is Html, css, and javascript. I don't need a computer science degree for all these at first, if that's all the job requires for entry level.

ARCHEMEDESME:

Don't you think you're generalizing . Are you saying that all CS students are not passionate and enthusiastic about computer science

Ausrichie:

Common programmers learn data structures and algorithms too oh. Even complexity of algorithms, but what annoys me about these "developers" is their extreme dependence on other people's libraries, if it has a bug how the hell are you going to fix it. By the way do you watch Bleach.

ARCHEMEDESME:

yea but it becomes annoying when someone who attends a 3 months bootcamp thinks they know it all

illitrate:


I started with micro-controllers, dumping chips firmware and creating patched data to be rewritten mostly via test-point. Sometimes had to get manufacturer blueprint to look for pinout and sometimes it was apian way. I was a member of a mobile phone repair hardware device team. Modifying boot-loaders, language packs, lock areas. trust me the fun starts once you know what u doing. I could unpack an exe packed with themida and play with the source. Truecript was my nightmare as of then.

The days when coders protected their hardwork with smarcards yet we created emulators to hoodwink the softs, then came server based authentications. We still could create fake servers, they started exchanging keys periodically hahaha still .... so much is to be explored, No end.

ARCHEMEDESME:
I've noticed a certain trend ; a lot of self taught developers seem to look down on a cs degree after learning just an aspect of computer science.

For example someone who decides to learn backend web development ( which is a subset of cs)by taking an udemy course thinks he has learnt more than a serious minded cs student . They go about saying stuff like :" I didn't study computer science but I can know more than a cs major" but they seem to forget that computer science goes beyond developing websites. To me it's a waste of time of time studying cs just because you want to be a web developer , correct me if I'm wrong but I think that's what boot camps are meant for .

But that doesn't change the fact that some CS majors know nothing , I've come across some CS majors that can't code but that doesn't make a cs degree worthless.
But do you think such people are right ?

wwwtortoise:


Greetings Sir !

Please recommend a user-friendly online platform where I can learn Python for free.

I used codecademy but the free version is limited to only the intro and basics.

PS: I am presently doing my NYSC and eagerly want to learn programming.

Regards.

Akoja360:
everything in Cs can be learnt from the internet while sitting on the toilet, the world has long since moved from glorifying certifications to focus more on solutions and problem solvers, we are stuck behind the rest of the world because we go to school to learn to use imported solutions and not to create , self taught gives you an edge over the status quo, whether one has a degree or not, to fit in the mordern day world you must go beyond the "school management system program" and "java hello world" you learnt in the university.

Basalt:


Now let me ask you a and I demand all honesty.
As a computer scientist, what can you do for a company?

Let's assume you didn't go to Bootcamp to learn coding or any additional skill

Coder2Client:
CS major is just like Jack of all trades master of none. As a CS grad, I was just reading to pass my exams. Tell me, how do you expect CS major to be expert in Java, c++, pascal, vb, algorithm, python Fortran, cobol, networking etc and still claim to be productive when he/she has not successfully implemented any of these core languages in a production?

After my school, I had to start all over by myself. This time, it was Java and I can tell you that I am very proud of doing so. I learn so much by myself.


So, self taught programmers are goal oriented and not like the school conventional way of programming.

ARCHEMEDESME:

yea but it becomes annoying when someone who attends a 3 months bootcamp thinks they know it all

ARCHEMEDESME:

Do you know how much Google and other companies spends on recruiting computer scientists who have PhDs . Most improvements and innovations at those companies come from these guys

Basalt:


Now let me ask you a and I demand all honesty.
As a computer scientist, what can you do for a company?

Let's assume you didn't go to Bootcamp to learn coding or any additional skill

javaRookie:


The same FORTRAN that was used to write one of the most popular machine learning library Scipy that is used on your so called modern day generation language Python.
The thing is that we like jumping on the next shiny thing forgetting the foundation that gave rise to those our "Knight in shining armour"
I overhead some programmers saying that Javascript and python are going to phase out C and C++. I couldn't help but laugh out loud!
You want to chase out the foundation, the core that gave rise to you?
Most of the libraries that Python uses are built with C.
Even the FORTRAN you so despise is even computationally faster than most of your modern languages.
I don't use Fortran, but i won't just overlook their usefulness and what they have contributed to the world of programming languages.

Big company like Google, ibm uses scripting languages like python and Ruby for making quick prototype but when a standard enterprise app is needed, they would go back to these core languages like FORTRAN(if the solution use more of numerical computing) C and the rest of our oldies.
Gosh even the Nodejs making wave was written in C++.

I try to keep an open mind to all programming language because you don't use them does not make them useless.

To the Mr Bible guy, i think you need to get a grip of your self.
You are just trying to discredit those self taught programmers by all means which to me is not sound.

Computer science make the complex algorithms with their vast knowledge of discrete mathematics. And all these algorithm can be implemented on any language of choice by these "Roadside" programmers in the web app or software.
Every body gets where they come in.

The thing is that in Nigeria we focus more on theory than the practical unlike western countries who would give you the theory break down and practical to go with it.
That is why many cs grad in Nigeria doesn't know how to code that much.
I am a cs undergraduate myself so i know what i am talking about.
The fault is partly form the CS professor, they over simply the Cs lane that an average Joe can use it, there making the young cs grads look redundant.
Make it simple but not too simple that i would lose my job - A lecture of mine said this.
Also the fault also is from the Nigerian ecosystem who outs so much importance on web apps as if it is the beginning and end of Computer Science.

You won't believe how much Google waste in getting maths and cs Professor of which all they do is making heavy research on how to improve google algorithm and make new solutions complex application.

onegig:


Absolute bullshit

You can learn whatever outside the four walls of the classrooms but a CS degree is far beyond just writing codes that this self taught courses gives you. I can bet a lot of all these so called "Software engineers" don't even know what data structures are which is the basic building block for all programming languages. I still have to sometimes reference my 2nd year text books on primary keys in projects. Now imagine someone who never even glossed through it.

That things have been abstracted to the point that you can drag and drop doesn't make you more knowledgeable than someone who understands the inner workings of the system. I would take a CS graduate with a few years of experience programming than a so called " established self thought programmer". In the long run the difference is extremely clear. The western world made the mistake in the early 2000s trying to outsource software development work to Indians who self taught and didn't go to traditional schools. When the quality of work dropped and the turn around time in terms of what jobs were completed and the errors they had to fix after. No one told them before they started withdrawing such critical aspects of the Software dev cycle from their hands and looking at home made CS graduates.


The same issues happens in the GIS field with people who just learnt how to use QGIS on Udemy believing because they can draw maps they are better than someone who studied the basics of stastiscal analysis for years before laying hands on the tool itself. What most of these courses don't teach you is why are you doing the things you are doing. They only show you how. That's a big gap of knowledge that still needs to be covered for you to be fully certified as a knowledgeable person in your field which sadly is something most self taught won't dabble into to learn more about.

The question is would you give the Civil engineer who understands concrete and sand ratio, soil analysis the job of building an important bridge in your city or give the job to someone who learnt over YouTube that if you are building a bridge you just have to add 50% cement and 50% sand to the beam to make a bridge without considering that each environment has their own peculiarities?

javaRookie:


The same FORTRAN that was used to write one of the most popular machine learning library Scipy that is used on your so called modern day generation language Python.
The thing is that we like jumping on the next shiny thing forgetting the foundation that gave rise to those our "Knight in shining armour"
I overhead some programmers saying that Javascript and python are going to phase out C and C++. I couldn't help but laugh out loud!
You want to chase out the foundation, the core that gave rise to you?
Most of the libraries that Python uses are built with C.
Even the FORTRAN you so despise is even computationally faster than most of your modern languages.
I don't use Fortran, but i won't just overlook their usefulness and what they have contributed to the world of programming languages.

Big company like Google, ibm uses scripting languages like python and Ruby for making quick prototype but when a standard enterprise app is needed, they would go back to these core languages like FORTRAN(if the solution use more of numerical computing) C and the rest of our oldies.
Gosh even the Nodejs making wave was written in C++.

I try to keep an open mind to all programming language because you don't use them does not make them useless.

To the Mr Bible guy, i think you need to get a grip of your self.
You are just trying to discredit those self taught programmers by all means which to me is not sound.

Computer science make the complex algorithms with their vast knowledge of discrete mathematics. And all these algorithm can be implemented on any language of choice by these "Roadside" programmers in the web app or software.
Every body gets where they come in.

The thing is that in Nigeria we focus more on theory than the practical unlike western countries who would give you the theory break down and practical to go with it.
That is why many cs grad in Nigeria doesn't know how to code that much.
I am a cs undergraduate myself so i know what i am talking about.
The fault is partly form the CS professor, they over simply the Cs lane that an average Joe can use it, there making the young cs grads look redundant.
Make it simple but not too simple that i would lose my job - A lecture of mine said this.
Also the fault also is from the Nigerian ecosystem who outs so much importance on web apps as if it is the beginning and end of Computer Science.

You won't believe how much Google waste in getting maths and cs Professor of which all they do is making heavy research on how to improve google algorithm and make new solutions complex application.

Crvrider:


So what do you think brought about the course, cs? CS is mainly software engineering. Anyone studying to become a computer scientist 98% more likely doing it because of coding.



But where will you do all of this if not on a computer.

The young man you quoted hit the nail right on the head. School curriculums are bloated with all manner of stuffs you don't need...hence the reason he said "jack of all trade master of none."

A self taught programmer if he/she is the serious type will learn far more than a student who has spent 4yrs in the university pursuing a cs degree. In many ways the self taught is more focal on the things that are strictly cs related. Cs and software engineering are like butter and bread. You can't really mention one without the other. So, if your cs lecturer has no clue about coding and concerns himself with things theory, bro run from such a school. More so, I see what inspired your reasoning.

Today the buzz word is data science. Can you even think about being a data scientist without even knowing how to code? Data analysis is more than just excel spreadsheet or databases? In the short run you will need to query these data, now how do you suppose you'll do that?

Some few questions for you though:
How will your lecturer test his algorithm?
How will you compute data without the need of a computational device?
Where do you want to store your data, in your pocket?