Highest Rated Comments


LoveDude30 karma

Good day Professor Thrun.

I really love Udacity. The only reason I initially took Udacity courses was because I wanted to become proficient in Python but it has taught me a lot more about the art of computer science. Completed cs101 and cs253 but stalled on cs212 and cs262. All the instructors were amazing.

What went onto the thought process of creating cs212 with Prof Novig because as a "[Java School Programmer]"(http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/ThePerilsofJavaSchools.html) because I feel like you decided that there were a lot of potential out there i.e. experienced programmers and coders that lacked certain key skills and conceptual frameworks that would make them great or competitive for jobs with top flight employers in Silicon Valley, Silicon Alley and Kendall Square.

cs101 was easy for me but cs212 really humbled me. Did not manage to get far enough to take the final but I learned so much especially in the dreaded Unit 3(which derailed me not a bad thing). Prof. Novig did an amazing Job transforming that way I viewed the art of CS. Learning functional programming in cs212 revolutionized learning Jquery library and Javascript. It also helped me understand aspects of big data like MapReduce and Pig as well as laying the ground work.

Was python just a tool for learning concepts as opposed to using concepts to learn how to use python especially given Prof Novig's Lisp background? Did you ever think about using schema or Lisp to teach cs212?

Thanks and best wishes