Discussion 0

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# CS 61A – Discussion 0
## Allen Guo
## http://aguo.us/cs61a
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## About Me
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- 5th year masters student advised by Josh Hug

- 5th semester as a teaching assistant
  - Previously taught: 61AS, 61B, 188

- Grew up in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.

- Fun fact: ???
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# Your Turn!

## Introduce yourself to your neighbors
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  ## Typical Discussion Agenda
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We start at 3:40pm.

- Announcements (5 min)

- Quiz (10 min)

- Lecture Recap (15 min)

- Worksheet (30-50 min)

- Q&A / Additional Recap (until end.red[*])

.footnote[.red[*] Discussions are 80 minutes long.]
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  ## About the Quiz
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- Graded on effort

- Tests the previous week's material

- Use it to check your progress
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# Announcements

- Lab starts next week

- Homework 0 due next Thursday

- Join Piazza

- Read the syllabus and Piazza guidelines
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# Worksheet Time
## 61A Presents: *Lost on the Moon*
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# First-Day Advice
## Stolen from the [r/learnprogramming FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/learnprogramming/wiki/faq#wiki_how_do_i_move_from_a_beginning_to_an_intermediate_level.3F)
### (If you're viewing this online, hit `p` to see the speaker notes)
???
Nice, you found the speaker notes!
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# #1: Switch from passive learning to active learning
???
Don't just absorb; learn to teach yourself.
If something piques your curiousity during an assignment, don't be afraid to investigate it further, even if it's not part of the course.
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# #2: Constantly be practicing
???
This course is basically problem-solving, and you can't get better at problem-solving without solving problems.
It's no different than a math class, or playing Candy Crush.
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# #3: Learn how to decompose problems
???
This is pretty straightforward, and it comes with time.
Just keep it in mind.
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# #4: Learn how to be systematic
???
Have a bug in your code? Don't do random stuff until you get lucky.
Use print statements to narrow down where the bug might be.
Before making a change, try to predict how the change will affect the program's behavior.
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# #5: Don't be discouraged by having to debug or google
???
Debugging and googling are perfectly normal, even among professional programmers.
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# #6: Don't be afraid to ask for help
???
Piazza, OH, discussion, lab, ...
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# #7: Have fun
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# Q&A
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## More About Me
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- My main focus in school has been data science

- EE 126/127, CS 186/188/189, CS 294-131, ...

- How I spent my summers:

- Web development for a startup

- Machine learning research

- Software development for a trading firm
]