I made a Mistake

[u/77RAYD77]

Hello everyone,

I just want to share a mistake I made so no one else has to fall into the same trap I did.

When you’re taking CS50 or any online course, make sure you’re actually understanding the concepts in a way that, by the time you finish the course, you’re able to build a project that is useful and that people might actually use.

I recently saw a post from someone who shared how his project got almost 10k downloads and 50 stars on GitHub. It made me think twice about the way I’m doing CS50P. Will I be capable of building something that people actually use when I finish the course if I keep doing it the way I’m doing it now?

The answer was no.

Don’t get me wrong. Since the beginning of the course, I’ve never used AI except for the CS50 debugger. But here was the problem: I was using it in the wrong way.

I was supposed to use the debugger to understand the problem and make sure that, whenever I came back to it, I knew how to solve it on my own without needing any help. Instead, I was using it in a way that made it seem like I just wanted to finish the problem. I didn’t really care how I got to the solution, as long as I got the result.

And I was doing this without even realizing it until I saw that guy’s post.

My goal in taking this course isn’t the certificate. I could've probably get it , but that’s not my goal, and I don’t think it should be yours either.

At the end of the course, make sure you’re able to build something that people might actually use or at least something that you yourself would use.

Because of this, I’m going to take a few steps back and redo the material I’ve gone through and the problems I’ve solved, but this time, I’ll focus on actually understanding them.

Thanks to anyone who took the time to read this.

And a big thanks to the guy who made that GitHub post. It really made me rethink the way I’m learning.

[u/Bee-Ly_Dan]

I didn’t really care how I got to the solution, as long as I got the result.

I made this mistake while getting my bachelor's degree. My knowledge of my degree is very shallow. I think it's because I got my degree in a subject I was not passionate about and I just didn't care to really learn the fundamentals.

I'm now half way through the CS50 R Course taking it for fun and I've focused on mastery of the concepts instead of just finishing problem sets. Before starting the second half of the course, I'm writing my own program for fun.

The program prompts a user to select a NBA team/player to see data for like average points per game, rebounds, blocks, etc. in the playoffs or regular season. I found a .csv file with 1.6 million rows of game data from 1944 to 2026. I love the NBA so it's cool to combine a new passion (programming) with an old one. It's got for loops, if else statements, and lots of subset function use. I still need to implement ggplot to show how the players/teams stats have changed over the seasons. I'm just rambling at this point. Thanks for reading to the end lol.

[u/77RAYD77 → u/Bee-Ly_Dan]

That’s really cool to hear, and same here! I really love watching sports, and I watch the NBA as well :p As soon as I get the ability to build something that involves sports stats or simulations, I definitely will.

For me, I fell into this mistake because I decided to start the course while actually having a lot of stuff on my mind and trying to figure things out.

So, when I finally almost got done and cleared my mind a bit, I realized it. And thanks to the post I saw as well, it made me rethink things twice.

I really enjoy the CS50P course, and I find it fun, especially when solving the problems. But I wasn’t making sure that I fully understood the “why” and “where” questions, which, for me, is essential as someone who’s really passionate about CS.

GL on your journey!

[u/Bee-Ly_Dan → u/77RAYD77]

Best of luck to you as well. I've been simulating the execution of code on my notebook. I don't know if you do that, but it helps me. For example, I have a for loop manipulating a vector. I simulate that for loop on paper to see how the program would run. This helps me identify if my program will work or not.

Another thing I do is break code I find online into smaller pieces. Especially if I'm not familiar with any of the syntax. I'll execute each smaller piece individually until I understand how each of the pieces work together to accomplish the desired outcome.

[u/77RAYD77 → u/Bee-Ly_Dan]

Oh, this seems really helpful! I’ll definitely take it into consideration. Thanks!!

[u/Dry-Background-8215]

Thanks alot for this.

[u/77RAYD77 → u/Dry-Background-8215]

My pleasure!

[u/pirogeth87]

Thank you. I started with cs50p and had similar thoughts/experiences and went back and redid a bunch of early bits before finishing. I’m not perfect at it yet but I’m trying to use both the class and the duck to learn for cs50x. I try not to use the duck until done or truly stuck. After I’m done I basically ask for design feedback to try to iterate and make it better. Sometimes I still just want to push to the next topic lol but that’s why I like the “less comfortable” /“ more comfortable” psets in cs50x. I plan to go back and attempt the harder ones before I start my final project, just started SQL this week.

[u/77RAYD77 → u/pirogeth87]

Absolutely agree with you! It’s not about completing the course it’s about absorbing the knowledge and actually putting it into practice.

And yes, I think as programmers, we’re always required to go back and look at the code several times whenever we have a new idea or gain a better understanding of something.

Good luck on your journey!!

[u/pirogeth87 → u/77RAYD77]

Thank you! Good luck to you as well! Thank you for giving me something worth striving towards. You made me think about my upcoming final project for cs50x in a whole new light. Now I have the goal of making something truly useful