Week 4

For Chapter 1, I enjoyed the approach this book is taking on computers and programming. I understand concepts better when they are represented visually so, I had to look up a lot of what the author was describing. This chapter was a great refresher as one of my favorite courses in undergrad was “Foundations of Computing”, where we learned the basics on computing using binary and assembly code. The class ultimately concluded with a project to create a “calculator” using logical gates, some wire, lights and breadboards. Understanding how to break concepts or tasks down into either ‘true’ or ‘false’ is crucial.  

Continuing with Chapter 2 I found the way the author described breaking down the steps to a problem to be a useful practice that I even use in my professional development. A version of storytelling with very specific details on there the story goes next. When I have a new problem to tackle, I always need to try to make either a diagram or chart or drawing of the solution and make it as non-technical as possible. I do not remember much of anything from that class I mentioned before, but I do remember that for me to successfully complete this calculator I had to understand where I was starting and where I needed to go before picking up a wire.  

Chapter 3 was the most familiar since it was primarily about programming. The language I use most often is JavaScript, an object-oriented language. Hills says, “With the right programming, a computer can become a heater, a musical instrument, a reference book, a chess opponent. No other entity in the world except a human being has such an adaptable universal nature”, this quote alone is a perfect description as to why I wanted to being a software engineer. Your only limitation is your imagination. Theres a really cool company called Active Theory, who specialize in creative tech, sometimes with articles or direct links to these projects. I like to use them as a resource of different ways to be creative and new tools and languages that can help me achieve that.