Recommending udacity.com

There are escape routes and happy diversions to each one of us, otherwise it's hard to retain sanity. And recently, I found a newer happy diversion, a diversion that pays rich dividends, called udacity.com. It is an digital university which offers courses for free. To begin with it had all Computer Science related courses, but slowing is expanding to Maths and Physics. Hopefully, arts in near future. So, even if you're not into IT and/or related academics, there could be something for you to check-out. 

As far as my experience goes, I'm loving my stint with udacity.com. There are two reasons why you gotta spend some time there: 1) To learn the learning. 2) To able to teach better. 

Since I had zero python exposure, I began with the basic course available (CS101) out there and at the end of it, my python skills might still be a bit shaky, but the whole approach of tackling a problem got richness into my Java experiments. Prof. Evans is a find for me. His ability to teach complicated stuff in simple-to-digest way has just overwhelmed me. Prof. Wes is another! 

After a successful adventure with the first course, I've been meddling with some other courses  and expect to see through them in few weeks to come. 

It needs some amount of self-discipline and dedication to finish these courses, but then, they are so much fun to do with those quizzes and ever growing forums, that it's hard to be lazy. More than the technical skills I had picked up in these courses, what I thoroughly enjoy is the creative process in Software Engineering, which so easily gets lost in the tight deadlines, over-the-roof celebrations of projects, performance appraisals and insecurities. I've got back to the sheer joy of programming, once again. 

If you're not too worried about your career at the moment or if you're going through a sort of career-crisis, this should be a place to hang out. And as a surprise, even if you're dealing with a crisis life has thrown upon you, and no python nor java can solve it - it is still a good idea to be here, because it is such a happy diversion! 

The standard of teaching is the best you can dream of and you can do it at your convenience. What are you waiting for?! See ya in the class!