MY FIRST [BASIC] PROGRAM

I completed the fourth week of Programming for Everybody (Getting Started with Python) from the University of Michigan on Coursera. At the end, I wrote my very first, albeit extremely simple, program. It prompts the user for the number of hours they worked and their rate of pay, and returns their pay rate.

Groundbreaking stuff, I know. But I need to start somewhere in my programming education and I thought doing this was the coolest thing ever. If I feel this way about a basic program, imagine how excited I’ll be when I can write a more complex one.

I’m beginning to understand programming from a different level than my work in machine learning and analytics. In those classes, I understood what I was doing, up until the regression course of machine learning, but I couldn’t create anything from scratch. I was merely regurgitating what I learned.

This programming class moves relatively slowly, so it’s great for beginners, but it’s almost too slow. I’ll have to take more classes in the specialization before I’m at the level I need to be to return to my Machine Learning Specialization.

This class was designed for people with no programming experience whatsoever. I have learned a lot already even in the few lectures that are present each week. I wish it was a little more in depth, but I really like it so far. The instructor is great and I hope to learn a lot as I progress through the courses.

He hasn’t suggested or recommended it, but as you can see from my image above, I am still using the iPython Jupyter notebook for all of my coding. It’s still my preferred method for my programming work.

The class is taught to use the Python command prompt to enter individual lines of code and a text editor to write functions or programs, which can be called on through the command prompt.

For me, the Jupyter notebook is the best of both worlds. You can enter single lines of code to get an output, or you can write entire programs. It’s also cleaner, you can add notes and headings, and save the file to return to where you left off. The best part is if you make a mistake. On Python, you get a syntax error and you need to rewrite the code. On the Jupyter notebook, you still get the error, but you can go back up and rerun the code after fixing the problem and the error message disappears.

Behind the scenes, it’s still running everything through the Python command prompt, but it looks so much nicer and it’s easier to see what you’re doing. You also don’t need to save a new text file every time you want to run several lines of code to see how something works. It’s good to know how to use Python without the flashy notebook, but once you do, I highly recommend using it for all your coding needs.

I’m still in differential calculus on Khan Academy, meaning I’m learning everything there is to know about derivatives and how to calculate them. There isn’t too much to say about it that I haven’t already said in previous journals without going into the detailed mathematics involved.

I will say that I’m learning a lot and I’m no longer scared of calculus. Not that I was frightened, per se, but I was concerned. I believe I’ll be done with differential calculus within the week, but there’s at least one fairly long lesson ahead, so we’ll see how that goes.

Though I have been working diligently on my coursework, I don’t have much of interest to discuss this week. As such, I’ve decided to go off topic a bit below.

I have a problem.

I can’t help but read negative comments that will most likely upset me, be it on YouTube, a news article, Facebook, etc. This time, I came across an article from 2012 (that people are still commenting on today, some who were commenting back in 2012) about “debunking” Khan Academy. I’m pretty sure whomever wrote it wasn’t entirely clear on the meaning of debunk.

Naturally, I was compelled to read the comments. And, as is the case with anything on the internet, even videos about kittens, there were a slew of negative comments about Khan.

The majority said Khan Academy isn’t helping with people’s fears of math, doesn’t give reasons why math is needed in real life, there are mistakes in at least one of the videos (which one person has repeated multiple times for 4 years), or it takes away from education in public schools that are also free and offer much longer lessons on the same topics.

I have several responses to those complaints. First of all, I don’t think it’s Sal Khan’s job to quell the fear of math inside certain people. He’s here to help everyone understand it better, either as a supplement to their formal learning or as a means to learn because they don’t have the opportunity elsewhere.

In the same regard, his purpose isn’t to explain the applications of mathematical concepts in everyday life or for specific careers. I think that would require an entirely new set of classes, or it would at least extend each lesson longer than is needed. Besides, in the comments for each video, other students and mentors are incredibly helpful and always answer how the formulas can be applied. I had good teachers growing up, but I can’t recall any math teacher explaining why we needed to learn about imaginary numbers of the unit circle. If these commenters truly have a problem with Khan’s lack of explanations, perhaps they should criticize schools as well.

I can’t attest to the mistakes in his videos or if they’ve been rectified. But only a machine could make as many videos as Khan has without making a single mistake. I’ve seen many spelling and grammatical errors in school textbooks throughout my life. It happens. It’s understandable. On Khan Academy, when people report a mistake in a lecture, someone places a popup note on the video explaining the correct statement or answer at the point of the mistake. This is a nonprofit organization, so the fact that they’re doing this all for free is amazing.

The last complaint goes without saying. Yes, lessons are much longer in public schools. That’s absolutely true. But it isn’t absolutely necessary. Some people don’t need to spend as much time on a lesson. Others are in school and watch the Khan Academy videos to better understand the topics they learned in class. Still others don’t have access to education, they’re interested in changing their career, or they want to relearn topics they had forgotten.

I have learned more than I ever thought I could in such a short amount of time and I’m incredibly grateful that this resource is available to everyone in the world. I was surprised by the huge number of complaints. I personally don’t understand it, but this is the internet.

Thank you for stopping by. I’m sorry for the short discussion on my coursework and the long rant that followed. I hope you’re all doing well. I’ll see you next week!