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As someone with a degree in chemistry and now attempting to self-learn CS, I have found working through detailed books and problems the best way to learn.

If only I would have known this simple fact in my chemistry lectures instead of trying to look through the book for what the teacher would test on. Yes I tested well but my understanding of the full concepts is not as expected.

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A person who has gone through a degree (of any kind, especially technical) is in a much better position to self-learn just from working through books and problems. What works for you now with your knowledge and experience might not have worked for you as a freshman or sophomore.

> I have found working through detailed books and problems the best way to learn

That's been my experience, too. What I can't seem to reconcile is that it appears that very, very few people actually seem to do this, yet there are a lot of people succeeding in CS. So either they're all a lot smarter than I am since I have to spend so much time reading before I really feel comfortable with a particular topic, or they're all just fooling themselves and they don't really understand it that well.

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