Don't Be a Computer Science Noob - Become a Master!

If you like computers, if it's something that you're into, and you want to someday work with computers, then I think that computer science is a beautiful subject. There is a lot in computer science that you probably don't know about, and this book is a perfect place to start for anyone who is getting into the field because it has the basic things. Now, if you're looking at this and you're thinking, oh, it's for middle school students, I guess it is, but honestly, it doesn't matter who you are. You can pick up this book and you can learn from it. Don't let the middle school thing make you feel like you're inferior because you're reading this book that's made for middle school kids, right? This book has tons of information, and in this video, we're going to talk a little bit about computer science and how you can use this book to become a lot better at computer science. This book, however, can do two things. One, it can teach you some computer science. You'll learn some stuff that's pretty much guaranteed, or two, it could actually change your life. If you are thinking about going into computer science, and you buy this book, and you like it, and it motivates you, and it leads you to learn more computer science, then I think that's a good thing, and it's probably a really good reason to pick up this book. By the way, I'll try to remember to leave a link in the description of this video in case you want to check out this book. I got my copy on Amazon. I'll leave a link to that, and I've had it for a while. You see it's starting to wear down a little bit. It's not really like a hard cover or a soft cover. It's somewhere in between, but yeah, it's good quality. Let's take a look further inside this book so you can see what makes this book so good for beginners, what makes it so special compared to other books out there. Let's see if we can find the copyright. 2020 by Workman Publishing Company, Inc. And then here it says, everything you need to ace computer science and coding. Hi. In this notebook, you will find everything you need to ace computer science and coding, from understanding computer systems to reading and writing with programming languages, from using basic algorithms to writing Boolean expressions, from working with Scratch and Python to exploring web development. This is the really important stuff that you'll need to understand computer science and to build a foundation in coding. And I want to emphasize there's a lot more than what's in this book, right? This book is for beginners, but wait till you see the contents. You're going to be blown away. And here it talks a little bit more about the book. Let's just read this. This is really cool. You will find the notes pretty straightforward, with the following formatting to keep things organized. So it tells you here how things are formatted, so you can read that. And then let's go ahead and look at the contents so you see. So it starts with computing systems. What is computer science? What is a computer? How do we interact with computers? Really basic questions that are worth analyzing and worth looking at if you've never thought about it. Data and analysis. Software engineering. Algorithms and programming. So you talk about, most people think about computer science, they think about programming. That's where their mind goes, right? Programming languages, because that's something that is very useful. Universal programming principles. Programming with Scratch. Programming in Python. Web development. And then here's Unit 1. And the layout of the book is super, super nice. It's got a great layout. Let me just show you. So you start the book, let's go to the very beginning, and you learn some stuff, right? It tells you what a computer is. It's a device that stores and processes, et cetera, changes, moves, or rewrites information. And then you basically go through the sections, and as you go through the section, you read, you learn, you keep going. And then at the end, there's actual questions. Check your knowledge. So what is computer science? Which of these are most likely not computing systems? Now you can write in the book, or you can choose not to write in the book. I chose not to write in my copy. And then when you turn the page, it says answers. So you can check your work. So it makes it a really, really good choice for self-study. And then you see it does it again. What is a computer? So you read more stuff, right? You read more stuff. You keep going. You read through it. Then you've got some questions. What is a computer? How have computers changed over time? And then why was the Apple II significant? Kind of cool, right? Then you can check your answers. So really, really nice layout for a book. Here is a look at the back of the book. You see it's got symbols. So it shows you some of the symbols. Assignment operator, addition operator, subtraction operator, multiplication operator, division operator. So these are operators, right? So pretty cool, right? Floor, division, modulus. And then here you've got an index, so you can look stuff up. Tim Berners-Lee, page 448. Good stuff, right? And then there's the back. So overall, I think this is a really good book for anyone. I don't know about prereqs. I feel like as long as you can read and you have access to a computer, so you know something, you've used a computer before, this helps. But honestly, I mean, as you can see, you don't even need a computer at the beginning. It just talks about it. I mean, you have to know what a computer is, I guess. It would help if you've seen a computer in your life. If you're watching this video, then you're probably watching it on your phone or on a computer, so you know what a computer is. But it tells you the basics. And it goes further, right? It talks about programming and stuff. So it's a good place for anyone to get started with computer science and learn quite a bit with one book that's actually super cheap, by the way. This book was not that expensive. So if you want to learn computer science, check out this book. I will try to remember to leave a link in the description. They have other books, too. I have most of them, part of the series, the Big Fat Notebook series. These are just some random books that I got on Amazon. And this one in particular is really, really good. They have other ones that are also good. But this one is specific to computer science. I think that's what makes it kind of special. So I mean, again, even if you're very young, I guess you could use this. It's meant for middle school students. And again, don't feel like if you're an adult and you're thinking about getting this. I mean, I bought it, so no shame. I think it's interesting. I have another book on C programming that I read. I actually read the whole book. And at the beginning of the book, it does talk about, and this is true of a lot of programming books, not all, but a lot of them. They'll talk about how computers work, the basics of computers. And I think that that's really helpful. I don't think that there's a lot of emphasis placed on that, perhaps, in certain college-level classes. If you take a class on programming, they're not going to go through and they're not going to talk about, I mean, many times, they won't spend a lot of time talking about the very, very basic things. Sometimes they do at the beginning. They'll do a quick review. But it's nice to have a book that talks about the basics. And as you can see, it goes in, and again, programming with Scratch, getting started, basic algorithms, data and operators, control blocks and event blocks, reusing scripts. And then here, it talks about Python and then web development. That guy looks shady, doesn't he? So why does web development have a guy with dark sunglasses in a suitcase that says passwords? Cybersecurity, yeah, so on the web, good stuff. Anyways, that's it. Take care. Keep doing math. Oh, and before I forget, if you want to learn math, I do have courses. They're actually on Udemy. But if you get them, check out the links from the description of this video or from my website, MathSorcerer.com. Also, check out my eBay store. I'll put a link in the description. I sometimes have a book or two for sale there or more. It just depends. And yeah, until next time, keep doing mathematics. And I hope this book helps you. Take care.