Someone has 'got the t-shirt'

Well I was looking around for more advice and I found this 'reading list' set up by a guy who had a whole summer before starting univeristy in which to study and really accomplish something. This guy set out and went on a marathon reading session and essentially grounded himself in all areas of computer science (exactly what I am planning to do). The thread below is his recommendations to people in a thread, it eventually branches out into a huge which book for this subject, which book for that. This guy is a true autodidact.

 I do intend to copy exactly what he has done, but I intend to summarise what is to be gained from each book and try to teach you guys what I've learnt.

This thread is huge so click to expand it and have a good read, definitely worth it. Inspirational to.
 I will post links to all these books in another post. For now back to Ron White.
Peace.


-Edit, seems there is a cap on the file size for one image, so I will post the whole picture, page length by page length below. Sorry about that.

Start- Enjoy

END- :)

10,000 Hours left to go

"Since most of you are unemployed or students, you can easily spend 50 hours a week working on your skills in the field of your choice. If you did this, four years from now (e.g. the length of a college degree) you would be an expert in your chosen field. Literally, you would be ready to step up and become the next Steve Jobs, or Bill Gates, or crap out a PhD in mathematics, or be an awesome musician, or whatever.

Instead, you will spend the next 4 years racking up 10,000 hours of practice browsing internet forums. (Some of you will get the hours done in only two years). Think about what the last four years of that got you.

Now, what's your excuse for wasting your human potential?"

 An epic post I found the other day that really encouraged me to do this.



 As of today I will make a 10,000 Hours milestone, tallying each day my accumulated hours and put to the test the authenticity of the 10,000 hours mastery theory.

Day 1: Setting up a PoA (Plan of Action)

 Had a few very informative responses to the posts on 420chan about reccomendations for someone wanting to pursue a life mastering computing. Much appreciation for those responses.

 I found a timeless advice piece from a computing blogger who used to be a student of Computing at Yale. He offers a top 7 list of personal recommendations for anyone wanting to study computer science at a top-level.

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/CollegeAdvice.html

His site is also very interesting to have a look around I will probably have another more serious look at his site when I have a bit more time.

 I'm still making my way through the 'How Computers Work' by Ron White book but have begun mapping out my PoA. Based on advice given in the posts (thanks again for that guys, especially big thanks to 'Basil Chuttingneg') I have decided to start my focused learning on assembly language.

 The reasoning behind this is :

• Gets to grips with the 'real' computer part of computing

• I will eventually be hindered by not knowing enough about assembly language and how compliers interact with the low level computer processes, so I am going to hit this hard now to make it a smoother ride later

• Allows me eventually to have a massive advantage when developing my skills in 'C' and the similar languages due to a proper understanding of their functions interaction with the I/O devices of the computer

Obviously nobody learns an assembly language over night so instead of focusing soley on assembly language I've decided to make out of every day a 5hour 'practice' time. Within these 5 hours I intend to spend 3 of those hours learning assembly language from the ground up and 2 of those hour gaining practical experience in something instantly usuable such as xHtml and CSS. 

 I will be starting out by re-doing the Bucky Tutorials on xhtml and CSS, so expect a few posts about that coming soon.

Again guys thankyou very much for the pointers so far, if you have anymore advice or any personal experience you'd like to share i'll post the links to the 420 posts below.
http://boards.420chan.org/prog/res/24050.php   /PROG/
http://boards.420chan.org/tech/res/89403.php    /TECH/
http://boards.420chan.org/howto/res/30980.php /HOWTO/

How Computers Work; Ron White

I recently purchased the highly recommended 'How Computers Work' by Ron White. Having only read about 100 pages in, I am currently in no position to write a full book review I can however recommend this title to anyone interested in any element of computing from hardcore low-level binary operation to how a mouse works, every area is tackled and is approached in a heavily illustrated manner making it a gentle ease into the world of computing.

How Computers Work, Ron White

Google Book Review:http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Dns_AQAAIAAJ&q=how+computers+work+ron+white+2012&dq=how+computers+work+ron+white+2012&source=bl&ots=DsVxegMAM3&sig=IFfywScy5V7kddWuCWYT3QKDV_w&hl=en&sa=X&ei=bUwgUOT5OIPT0QWRv4CQCA&ved=0CE0Q6AEwBA

Amazon Link:http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Computers-Work-Ron-White/dp/0789736136/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344294106&sr=8-1