In this issue, you'll learn about:

• How to self-teach CS
• What we can learn from Floki the boat builder

The best study guide on the internet

Here's a quote, read it twice.

Don’t be a boilerplate programmer. Instead, build tools for users and other programmers. Take historical note of textile and steel industries: do you want to build machines and tools, or do you want to operate those machines?

—Ras Bodik

Don't know about you, but I don't want to get stuck developing derivative CRUD apps.

Learning shiny technologies that will only come crashing down as quickly as their meteoric rise.

I want to evolve, understand what’s happening under the hood, and innovate.

If you want to evolve too, then I recommend teachyourselfcs.com (I'm currently on Computer Architecture).

What Floki the boat builder has to teach about mastery

The TV show Vikings has made its way into my consciousness, and it has a character I really admire, named Floki.

Floki is a boat builder. He's unlike the rest of the tribe. He builds these beautiful boats which the vikings use to sail west and discover new land with villages to plunder. This brings the tribe great riches and pride, and the community respects him for it.

I want to be like Floki.

Not like the sailors with a replaceable skill anyone can learn in a matter of months. Someone with real mastery, and who can push the frontier because of it.

This is why I'm brushing up on my CS theory, maybe you should too.

All father. Forgive me for daring to speak to you. In any case, you don't need to listen. I am just a boat-builder, an artist, not a real person.

—Floki to the Gods