When can we expect version 5.0?

[bbondier]

Hi,

First of all, thank you for all the amazing work you’re doing with this repo. I saw your recent README update and was wondering if v5 is still in progress, as I’m considering starting the curriculum soon. Would it be better to wait for the release of the next version?

Thanks again, and apologies for opening an issue just to ask this.

[InTheMoodForNow]

Same question for me. Would love to know when to expect this.

[P1xt]

You're in luck! I've been doing a deep dive reviewing what I've got put together for v5 this past week.

You can expect the v5 revamp as soon as tomorrow or as late as a week from tomorrow depending on how industrious I feel tomorrow 😄

[P1xt]

The v5 revamp went live with commit 352bfaf

I am leaving this issue open for a bit because, as much as I've reviewed everything, I can guarantee my brain was working faster than my fingers and I've probably missed at least a dozen grammar mistakes even though I've read through this whole thing repeatedly over the past two weeks.

[WildGenius]

Since the new version includes some non-programming educational advice, might it help to also include links to resources for that? For instance, some of the stuff from https://github.com/hannesfrank/awesome-remnote (and probably Anki as a FOSS SRS alternative).

Similarly, you advise to "help others learn", but it's not too clear how to go about that. Do you mean just the course communities (e.g., you're active on a/A's), or also stuff like Stack Exchange?

[P1xt]

I can't, in good conscience, recommend RemNote or guides for it as flash cards have not once helped me learn anything. I'm not saying they don't help other people but they just don't work in a way that I've ever found helpful for me.

As to helping others, I'll see if I can't put in an update that's more specific about that. My intention is to foster helpfulness in the communities surrounding the various resources. Like, I've been active on a/A, and some other communities, and I know the Odin Project currently has a thriving community that would be excellent for practicing "helping" in. I'd steer clear of Stack Overflow, that place can be pretty frustrating with the egos and the "not-so-niceness."

[Sazid99246]

In each tier, I can see you adviced to practice math from khan academy. Please make it specific by giving the topic/s you are advising to practice, because there are a vast math courses in khan academy.

[P1xt]

The math course to practice is always "the one that is the level you're at"

Some people will start at arithmetic, some with algebra, some with calculus. Practice whatever is next for you. It does NOT matter where you are now, the goal is to progress and know more next week than you did last week.

[WildGenius]

To be clear, it doesn't have to be RemNote specifically, just anything dealing with spaced repetition (the linked list provides plenty of evidence of efficacy from third-party sources as well as links to broader educational resources). When you have a minute (or ten), I highly recommend giving the Matuschak article a try - practising flashcards is indeed just ensuring memory (which I also wouldn't discount), making them is what demands and improves learning.

With regards to communities, I think it would be helpful to have a list of stuff not tied to a particular course, e.g., some subreddits or Discord servers, since even within this list there are multiple courses for similar things. The discussion won't be specific to the particular modules, but it's surely a boon to have a "neutral" place to haunt throughout as well as practice interacting with devs without the exact same background knowledge.

[P1xt]

I like your idea on communities - I'll give it some thought.

I think with spaced repetition, I tend to prefer "repeatedly using the information to reinforce it" as opposed to using an app or cards to diligently try to commit it to memory - at least with regards to learning programming. I'd rather urge folks to do practice project after practice project where they are using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (or whatever they happen to be learning at the moment) and develop familiarity by repeatedly building concrete projects.

[WildGenius]

Well, it's not an "either or" (XOR?..) proposition - of course, coding is a practical skill, but, to quote Leslie Lamport: "Coding is to programming what typing is to writing. Writing is something that involves mental effort - you're thinking about what you're going to say. The words have some importance, but, in some sense, even they are secondary to the ideas; in the same way, programs are built on ideas: they have to do something, and what they're supposed to do is what writing is supposed to convey. If people are trying to learn programming by being taught to code well they're being taught writing by being taught how to type, and that doesn't make much sense.". In other words, you have to know why you're writing code in addition to how. Since you already suggest taking notes, it seems practical to ensure retention of the contents of those notes and build them up alongside any projects.

[P1xt]

To be fair, I mostly encourage the note-taking to build skill with writing markdown :D

[WildGenius]

I suspect we'd both read stuff in perfectly formatted Markdown that is nonetheless functionally unreadable. This is a stuffy opinion to hold, but I do believe that writing is understanding and vice versa. SRS ensures every old mistake comes back to be rectified eventually, and conceptual mistakes are far more costly than syntax errors.

[P1xt]

Practicing by completing projects ensures you learn how to use and expand on what you've learned.

[WildGenius]

That's true only as long as each project's demands are a superset of the previous project's. Given that the list already contains courses rather than just project ideas/Leet Code, I don't need to convince you of the value of a didactic structure for conceptual stuff alongside raw programming practice. More importantly, a project is something you start and finish, whilst education is something you continue until you're finished. May as well help your future self by keeping all the important reusable stuff in the same place (your note-taking/SRS software) and within mental reach (though SRS defaults are tuned for 90% recall, that's a heck of a lot more than without it).

[InTheMoodForNow]

The v5 revamp went live with commit 352bfaf

I am leaving this issue open for a bit because, as much as I've reviewed everything, I can guarantee my brain was working faster than my fingers and I've probably missed at least a dozen grammar mistakes even though I've read through this whole thing repeatedly over the past two weeks.

Looks awesome! Thank you.

I'm curious;

1. Why did you remove the Tier X ie CS/Maths courses that you had handpicked in V4? I can see that you advise to study math all the way through but I'm tempted to still reference to the V4 for specific courses.
2. I'm confused as to what happened to AppAcademy. I was actually learning Ruby on it as per your guides a few years ago. Did they stop offering their free online curriculum? A visit on their website does not answer my question per se.

Thank you so much for your hard work!!

[500EJ]

I'm having trouble moving on in the CodeSignal courses because Cosmo is required to submit, and every submission uses "energy." It is impossible to move on to the next module without submitting the previous one. Were you able to find a way around this?

[yanmarex]

I have problems completing a lesson and I need energy to be able to continue to the next module and they only give 5 energies per day. Is there any way I can complete the course without energy?

[P1xt]

I'm having trouble moving on in the CodeSignal courses because Cosmo is required to submit, and every submission uses "energy." It is impossible to move on to the next module without submitting the previous one. Were you able to find a way around this?

Drat - I didn't notice that because at some point I subscribed. I asked Cosmo if it could be used without running out of energy and should not have trusted its "yes" reply. I just tried on a new account and I was only able to do about half a course before I ran out of energy. It's a fantastic resource but I'm going to need to replace what's in Tier 1 (I predict it will be the Odin Project)

Nobody is going to want to have to stop learning for 24 hours for their energy to restore.

[Sazid99246]

I'm having trouble moving on in the CodeSignal courses because Cosmo is required to submit, and every submission uses "energy." It is impossible to move on to the next module without submitting the previous one. Were you able to find a way around this?

Drat - I didn't notice that because at some point I subscribed. I asked Cosmo if it could be used without running out of energy and should not have trusted its "yes" reply. I just tried on a new account and I was only able to do about half a course before I ran out of energy. It's a fantastic resource but I'm going to need to replace what's in Tier 1 (I predict it will be the Odin Project)

Nobody is going to want to have to stop learning for 24 hours for their energy to restore.

Not only tier 1, your entire curriculam includes a lot of courses from CodeSignal. I think you should make a bigger change in the curriculam, and please think about tailwind over bootstrap. I think bootstrap is rarely used in the industry nowadays. Thank you.

[P1xt]

I am not including tailwind - their community is toxic. Both bootstrap and tailwind are used a lot. I mean, I've used them both on production projects in the past 6 months, Bootstrap still gets a lot of use.

I am, however, in the middle of making that "bigger change" throughout the curriculum. It shouldn't take more than a couple days, I've been researching alternatives for each tier for months so I just need to go to my second choice in a number of areas. I should likely have Tier 1 fixed today but I need to do a bit more thinking about what to do with tier 3.

[P1xt]

Tier 1 revision complete with commit 18557d8

[P1xt]

Please bear with me a bit. I'm having a bit of a brainstorm after revamping Tier 1 for a full curriculum that will better weather the test of time and better prepare learners for "doing the job" they eventually want to have. It's going to take me a bit of time though and my November is pretty jam packed with work and other obligations. I will be working on this daily, but it might only be for an hour or so, and I suspect that v6 is going to be 80-120hours of effort on my part to realize.

I should be able to start to roll out v6 (sorry v5 had such a short life, but I'm confident that v6 will be well worth it) by the second week of December.

In the meantime, I would suggest the following:

• do the Odin Project Foundations and Full Stack JavaScript if you've yet to do so
• go to codingame.com and do the puzzles, starting from very easy and progressing from there
• read articles on CSS Tricks, especially the ones on CSS Flexbox and CSS Grid
• take this opportunity to dive into Khan Academy and advance your proficiency with math from wherever you are now to "better than that"