The readings and responses listed here should take you approximately 60 minutes.
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1. Learning Fluency by Turing alum Sara Simon (30 min)
- Your key take-aways OR how you're going to implement specific points (minimum 3):
- Learning comes in different forms. Adaptation is key, but feeling “less than” because you learn in a different way is useless and untrue.
- Finding your own study techniques is key. Because everyone’s brains are naturally wired differently, you need to find what works for you. That being said, in a world of endless varieties of learners, teachers cannot possibly cater to each person. That’s when you need to train your brain and adapt to different strategies to be able to absorb the lessons effectively. For me, like the author, it’s repetition and a solid understanding of the material from the ground floor, up. I like to understand why we need to do things we do, or why it’s important to grasp a strategy and why that concept matters.
- Experience matters, but everyone starts somewhere. I was so nervous changing careers when I was already comfortable in the industry I was apart of. It’s scary starting with no background in the tech industry, especially while looking back on what I gave up to start this journey. I need to stop discouraging myself at times, and realize that there’s no way to master something without starting at the bottom, making a choice, and seeing it through.
2. How to Use Google to Solve Your Programming Questions by Coding in Flow (15 min)
- Your key take-aways OR how you're going to implement specific points (minimum 3):
- I didn’t know about the option of negating a word by using the - symbol.
- Video tutorials are super helpful, but because there’s generally a ton of different options, being able to narrow it down using quotation marks helps save time.
- The time the article is written is often important no matter what you’re researching. Within the context of tech and programming, though, I’m learning that the date of the published information holds a lot of stock. The industry changes quickly and noticing the date of the article seems to be incredibly important.
3. Do Experienced Programmers Use Google Frequently? by Umer Mansoor (10 min)
- Your key take-aways OR how you're going to implement specific points (minimum 2):
- I’m realizing that memorizing each tag or attribute might not be the most helpful thing to spend my time on. Of course memorizing the most that I can will come in handy, but because there’s so much out there, perhaps making more use of google would be the best place to start out getting comfortable with them. -The way you search for answers matters. Learning how to effectively google will help out a lot, especially with programming-related searches.
4. 20 Google Search Tips to Use Google More Efficiently by Joseph Hindy (15 min)
- Briefly describe (in your own words) each of the tips below AND provide an example of a search that captures the sentiment of the tip
- Tip 2: When searching for a phrase, always start with using quotes. Google will search the multiple words together, instead of searching each word separately. It’s very helpful when trying to find a specific article or video or person. Example: searching: how to change a car tire on a subaru, would be more effective by searching “how to change tire” subaru.
- Tip 3: Hyphens exclude words within a search. It’s helpful if you notice a trend in unwanted results including a specific word or phrase. Example: Searching for the band named “PUP” often gets a lot of results including the animal of a dog. You could search :PUP -dog to narrow it down, or combine two methods by searching “PUP band” -dog.
- Tip 4: If you need information from a specific website, you can use a colon to narrow you search to have results specifically from that website. Example: Perhaps you’re looking for a recipe you once used. You want it to be exactly like the last time you made the food, and you remember using Martha Stewart’s recipe. You could search Mac and cheese site:marthastewart.com.
- Tip 9: If you need to narrow your search down even more, you can use multiple different words or phrases. Example: By using the quotation tip and you’re looking for a specific restaurant but can’t remember the name, you could search “mexican restaurant” “downtown denver”.
- Tip 13: Websites don’t get written or titled in the same way that people talk, so trying to think of specific words or terms that are more likely to be used on websites might help with your search. Example: searching, what does dehydration feel like, could be improved by searching: symptoms of dehydration.
- Tip 14: Try not to use full sentences in the search bar (unless you’re using quotations and want to search for that specific sentence). Any word that isn’t directly related to your search should be left out. Example: Searching: what’s the closest coffee shop to me in denver that’s open right now, could be improved by skimming the search down: coffee shop near me or coffee shops open now.
- Tip 17: Terminology matters, so if you’re having a hard time finding the results you need, try changing up the wording. This goes back to using terms you think a website might use. Example: searching: bars with live music denver, could be improved by searching “music venues” denver.
If you have any questions, comments, or confusions from any of the readings that you would an instructor to address, list them below: