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- Thread starter mjthomp95
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Hi, mjthomp95. Welcome to Sysnative.
There weren't computer science programs when I was in school. Although unrelated to the help I provide in online forums, my employer had both internal training programs as well as providing access to outside training. Related to the malware removal help I provide, I was fortunate to have mentors who provided training. Ongoing learning continues to be available within security forums.
There weren't computer science programs when I was in school. Although unrelated to the help I provide in online forums, my employer had both internal training programs as well as providing access to outside training. Related to the malware removal help I provide, I was fortunate to have mentors who provided training. Ongoing learning continues to be available within security forums.
Welcome to Sysnative mjthomp95 :)
I learned most of what I know from the internet. Every time I came across a term or concept about computers I didn't understand, I searched for that term online. More often than not, I couldn't understand what I was reading, so I would do some background reading on the subject. That would bring up more terms I didn't understand, so I would do yet more background reading. I could easily while away a whole day in an ever expanding web of stuff I didn't know. However, by the end, I had usually knew a great deal more on that topic than at the start. I then came onto the forums and helped out where I could. Whenever I saw a question I didn't understand, or an answer given by someone more knowledgeable I would either directly learn from that answer, or if I didn't understand it, do more background reading.
Then I started programming. Little bits of high level programming don't help much more than giving you the ability to write programs. I eventually moved to the lower level stuff and used that to enhance my understanding of *how* computers work.
I also did a lot of self-experimentation. Find something I couldn't understand, but before I looked online I would devise a test to determine the answer for myself. Through repeated experimentation, the development of theories, and the refinement of those theories I could learn a lot. My choice of field when I finally specialised from providing generic help was in Windows Update - a largely unexplored field which I had to uncover mostly through my own analysis and experiments.
I now share my findings with others, and teach others the field of Windows Update. I'm also working on lots of automated tools to make various fixes which were manual and took many hours into automated processes done either quickly, or in places completely automatically and within any human intervention.
Keep plugging away at the learning - and above all, don't stick to just what's on your course - if there's something you see and don't understand - INVESTIGATE! You'll go places if you do more than everyone else, and that means having such an inquisitive nature that you don't accept anything as just something you don't know. Read about it! Even just a basic understanding will help you understand other things, make connections you wouldn't otherwise understand. Also realise that having breadth is as important as depth. Try to know at least a little bit on how hardware, how networking, how programming, how servers, how Linux, all work. You cannot ever gain full depth in one area without understanding at least a little bit of everything. Then start going in to depth on everything, one at a time (or lots at a time depending on how you learn).
Good luck!
Richard
I learned most of what I know from the internet. Every time I came across a term or concept about computers I didn't understand, I searched for that term online. More often than not, I couldn't understand what I was reading, so I would do some background reading on the subject. That would bring up more terms I didn't understand, so I would do yet more background reading. I could easily while away a whole day in an ever expanding web of stuff I didn't know. However, by the end, I had usually knew a great deal more on that topic than at the start. I then came onto the forums and helped out where I could. Whenever I saw a question I didn't understand, or an answer given by someone more knowledgeable I would either directly learn from that answer, or if I didn't understand it, do more background reading.
Then I started programming. Little bits of high level programming don't help much more than giving you the ability to write programs. I eventually moved to the lower level stuff and used that to enhance my understanding of *how* computers work.
I also did a lot of self-experimentation. Find something I couldn't understand, but before I looked online I would devise a test to determine the answer for myself. Through repeated experimentation, the development of theories, and the refinement of those theories I could learn a lot. My choice of field when I finally specialised from providing generic help was in Windows Update - a largely unexplored field which I had to uncover mostly through my own analysis and experiments.
I now share my findings with others, and teach others the field of Windows Update. I'm also working on lots of automated tools to make various fixes which were manual and took many hours into automated processes done either quickly, or in places completely automatically and within any human intervention.
Keep plugging away at the learning - and above all, don't stick to just what's on your course - if there's something you see and don't understand - INVESTIGATE! You'll go places if you do more than everyone else, and that means having such an inquisitive nature that you don't accept anything as just something you don't know. Read about it! Even just a basic understanding will help you understand other things, make connections you wouldn't otherwise understand. Also realise that having breadth is as important as depth. Try to know at least a little bit on how hardware, how networking, how programming, how servers, how Linux, all work. You cannot ever gain full depth in one area without understanding at least a little bit of everything. Then start going in to depth on everything, one at a time (or lots at a time depending on how you learn).
Good luck!
Richard
Welcome to Sysnative Forums & thank you for the kind words.
Learning computers for me is an on-going process. I initially learned Windows under Vista to try and solve my own BSOD problems. I came upon tech forums at the time and decided to try and help others with their problems. The rest as they say is history!
Hello and welcome!
Richard explained it extremely well, and it's similar for me. Everything I now know today as far as computers goes (especially debugging) I have learned from the internet over a great span of time. If I could give you one tip, it's to read, research what you just read, and then read, and then research some more, and then read again, etc. Never stop reading and researching, and you'll never stop learning. More importantly, if the niche you're interested in involves constant hands-on experiences, IMO it greatly accelerates the process (at least for me).
For example, if I had to guess the amount of times I've opened a crash dump in WinDbg since I started learning two and a half years ago, I'd have to assume it's well into the thousands. I can easily open ~50 crash dumps a day, or more. The fact that I was constantly working on what I was trying to learn as opposed to just reading about it really helped me learn. Read more than just things on the internet too, there are so many books out there.
The most important thing above all is actually having the will to learn. As long as you have that, and are willing to work for it, I personally believe you can truly accomplish anything.
Regards,
Patrick
Richard explained it extremely well, and it's similar for me. Everything I now know today as far as computers goes (especially debugging) I have learned from the internet over a great span of time. If I could give you one tip, it's to read, research what you just read, and then read, and then research some more, and then read again, etc. Never stop reading and researching, and you'll never stop learning. More importantly, if the niche you're interested in involves constant hands-on experiences, IMO it greatly accelerates the process (at least for me).
For example, if I had to guess the amount of times I've opened a crash dump in WinDbg since I started learning two and a half years ago, I'd have to assume it's well into the thousands. I can easily open ~50 crash dumps a day, or more. The fact that I was constantly working on what I was trying to learn as opposed to just reading about it really helped me learn. Read more than just things on the internet too, there are so many books out there.
The most important thing above all is actually having the will to learn. As long as you have that, and are willing to work for it, I personally believe you can truly accomplish anything.
Regards,
Patrick
Thank you guys for answering me. I appreciate your willingness to help me. I've always been curious about how some people go about gaining so much knowledge, and I gathered from your responses it's mostly about the willingness to go out a seek the knowledge. Whether, that be from searching through the internet for unfamiliar words, or reading books/articles. I like to read books but always thought a computer science book would be boring, but I got one yesterday and I actually thought it was pretty interesting.
You're not alone, don't worry. I know many people (including myself) who at times cannot stand to sit and read through Windows Internals. I for one cannot really be bothered to read it unless I have the hard copy and I am out relaxing in the backyard, park, etc. If I am sitting at home, I cannot read the .pdf or I will melt away from boredom. I usually only use the .pdf for quick reference.
- May 7, 2013
- 10,400
I learned the same way as pretty much as everyone else, I got interested in Computer Science when I read a programming book in my school library, I was actually quite surprised because at my old school there wasn't any Computer lessons which I would remotely consider Computer Science; it was Microsoft Office with a little bit of animation and web development (no code writing though).
I brought some programming books in C++ and one or two in C# and HTML/CSS, I then wanted to understand how the code would be processed by the computer. That then led to learning about hardware, where I started to learn little bits about everything. Eventually I stumbled over BSODs, where initially I was simply learning from forum posts and a few webpages. Once I gained some more knowledge and was more comfortable, I purchased Windows Internals which lay a foundation for me to being able to understand all the technical papers and more complex forum posts.
Afterwards, I began to start to read the Theoretical side of things, which is where I learned that is much more to Mathematics than just equations which were being taught at school. I guess I wasn't as interested in Maths at school as I was with Science, because of the way things were taught and that it wasn't considered 'cool' enough.
In short, I've simply learned from papers, people on forums and books; that's all you really need to be able to learn if you have the right motivation and reason for learning. Just learn something because your interested in and love to learn new things. I'm still learning new things all the time.
I brought some programming books in C++ and one or two in C# and HTML/CSS, I then wanted to understand how the code would be processed by the computer. That then led to learning about hardware, where I started to learn little bits about everything. Eventually I stumbled over BSODs, where initially I was simply learning from forum posts and a few webpages. Once I gained some more knowledge and was more comfortable, I purchased Windows Internals which lay a foundation for me to being able to understand all the technical papers and more complex forum posts.
Afterwards, I began to start to read the Theoretical side of things, which is where I learned that is much more to Mathematics than just equations which were being taught at school. I guess I wasn't as interested in Maths at school as I was with Science, because of the way things were taught and that it wasn't considered 'cool' enough.
In short, I've simply learned from papers, people on forums and books; that's all you really need to be able to learn if you have the right motivation and reason for learning. Just learn something because your interested in and love to learn new things. I'm still learning new things all the time.
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