Autodidactic educational plan

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Subsequent to my withdrawal from Rasmussen College (henceforth called Rash Mustard Cellage) I am going to study subjects pertaining to both academic knowledge and trades/skills. Firstly, I'm going to seek to get certificates, such as the A+ for computer repair, then move onto subjects such as computer languages. I'm going to learn, and finally be able to learn, subjects such as differential equations, linear algebra, analysis, number theory, astrometrics, etc. When my mind feels foggy I can study less intensive and more memory based subjects such as history and perhaps start writing a novel I've been wanting to write about interplanetary/interstellar colonization and such of the sort that if I had stuck to the degree mill otherwise known as Rash Mustard I would never have had time to do.

I can recommend some decent books for you if you like.

Python first. WikiBooks has a tutorial, and there is also Dive into Python. Both are free.


A First Course in Differential Equations with Modeling Applications by Dennis Zil. I had to get the 9th edition for class; if you're studying on your own the 8th edition is just as good and probably less than a tenth of the price.


Gilbert Strang, Introduction to Linear Algebra.


For real analysis, read Elementary Classical Analysis by Marsden and Hoffman. It is worthwhile to get the most recent edition in this case.

There is also a very good website called Paul's Online Math Notes that contains excellent reviews of basic mathematics (algebra, Calc I-III, ODEs, and Linear Algebra).

" less intensive and more memory based subjects such as history "

Properly handled history is no memory based - though a lot of history education takes the low road of date knowledge, so much so that one History prof of my acquaintance admits he puts datest that are rreally unsupportable into his papers on prehistory because of what we might call peer pressure.

It is the causal factors and processes that count.

Thanks, I very much appreciate the recommendations actually. It's just the same as when selecting curriculum for homeschooling: wading through all the rhetoric of coursework marketing can be time consuming and lead nowhere fast. Having reviews and recommendations based upon experiential knowledge is far more useful and helpful.

I've been learning math (except calculus and linear algebra, which are part of my course) independently. For calculus, I recommend using Calculus made Easy. The techniques in the book aren't great, but it does make calculus a lot less abstract; things like integration and differentiation will become intuitive.

The KhanAcademy.org is a great math/science resource, it has very clear videos on many fields of math. I managed to learn the basics of statistics (poisson and normal distributions) in around three nights.

Always try to relate what you are studying to something you want to know how to do. If you are learning linear algebra, build mathematical models based on markov chains. If you are learning statistics or biology, try to analyse a chunk of DNA sequence and see if the amounts of Adenine and Thymine are the same. Stuffs like that makes sure you can actually apply your knowledge, and it helps you remember what you've learned

Causal factors are interesting, however a lot of it sounds more like conjecture which tends to alter along with the current political landscape. As far as dates are concerned, if they have more certainty to them, such as the date of the surrender of a city or such, it's better to work with it than not to. If the dates are uncertain, I think it is better to proceed in an "after this yet before that" manner as indicated within texts. IDK though, but what I meant in my statement of "more memory based" is that the subject of history more revolves around the learning about events of history via memory than sciences that are more like chemistry and physics or mathematics in general. Learning about the technology in the ancient world is something which can involve physics to attempt to replicate apparatus or otherwise better understand the level of knowledge that might have been utilized by craftsman. Learning about history in terms of "why this person did that" seems to me to be less concrete than "this happened before/after that" because it gets into the fishier realms of attempting to ascertain the internal motives of a person or people no longer available to question (although even having people available to question their motives would be meaningless too since, too often, once one has come up with an hypothetical set of motivations that they want to be true they unfortunately lose the ability to consider otherwise [at least true with a fair bit of people I've known, although not certain for everyone though]).

I don't have any specific books on number theory, but abstract algebra has a somewhat similar "feel" to it. Contemporary Abstract Algebra by Gallian is the best math book I own, but it is also very dense for the uninitiated.

Topology is fun too. I like the book by Munkres.

I had already studied that one. I got through the single variable derivatives and indefinite integrals prior to my stepdad requiring me to find work and leave home. The series by that author doesn't get very in-depth to the subject though. Like many textbooks too much time is spent with writing unrelated to the concepts that I wanted to learn and rather spent upon the storyline that is intended to make the subject more interesting. I thank you for the recommendation though.

Fair enough. Calculus made Easy isn't terribly in depth, I just recommended it because it because anyone who reads the book can't fail to "get the gist" of calculus. The same cannot be said for many other math textbooks, which focus on proofs and use technical language to the degree that often the only people who can understand them are those who already are familiar with the content therein. I can't really give any recommendations for any "not-for-dummies" maths books, but I'm sure the list above will be more than sufficient. Still, enjoy learning about these fields, they're all great

Well, on history, I certainly was not about to recommend getting into internal; motivation and was Napoleon bisexual and that kind junk. And I deplore the tendency - which is, yes, growing - to reimAgine ghistory in line with this psychological or political theory or that..

You have your head and cannot think with mine, nor I with yours. Let me just recommend you a book:
http://openlibrary.org/books/OL6015609M ... _aftermath

I'm shocked it seems to be out of print. Anyway, if you get a chance, have a look at it. To me, it is the single most readable, most insightful work of history I have ever read.

Yeah, it seems as though people often think of history as their own political puppet show. "What's the agenda of the day? Well let's find some figures that people respect still, revise their biography, and put some currently relevant words in their mouths. What, you don't approve? You're denied tenure then naif!".

Well, I've added that book to my amazon wishlist along with the other previous recommendations. To tell the truth, I'm not really interested in modern history all that much. I prefer ancient history through the end of the 1600s, but I'll see about reading that eventually at least to see the manner of presentation even though the exact topic isn't currently of interest to me.

Currently though, with my plan to study one skill based textbook and one academic textbook at a time, I've selected a Comptia A+ course for the job market skill and I've selected a refresher course in geometry and trig prior to returning to calculus next round.

Orwell, why Python specifically? I was intending on going with Visual Basic or C++, but what benefits would Python have?

It is friendly to new programmers and used everywhere. It's very good for making quick little example programs, unlike something like C which will require a lot more mucking about before you get anything that does anything. C++ is useful to learn later on if you're going to do more "serious" programming, but Python is still very valuable for real programming. Visual Basic is generally regarded as a gigantic mess of a language that will teach you bad habits.

Doing a little internet research comparing them, I think you're right. My stepdad would probably disagree, but he's an older programmer whose worked with such languages as Assembly and Fortran which he taught himself while he was bored in college. Perhaps I'm biased against college due to him primarily and my experiences just serve as a type of self-confirmation of such bias. Python does look like a rather simple language to learn, so I'll try it along with teaching myself calculus next round.

Assembly: no one uses that today, unless they are masochists aiming for geek cred.

Fortan: Still used, especially in scientific applications. Valuable, but probably a bit more technical than needed for a first language.

I wasn't considering these as languages to learn at first, just stating the probable opinion of my stepdad since he uses visual basic to make programs to help him test and optimize other programs for US Bank, along with Hammer and a testing language which primarily uses flow charts, records user input, and duplicates it while filling in spreadsheets of automated test results. The statement regarding Assembly and Fortran was merely in regard to what he taught himself first.

Ah, it looks like Python is often used in the field of Bioinformatics which is to imply that this may be your source of experience with this language. Would that be correct?

Not really. Python is just the de facto first language for Linux users. Bioinformatics has traditionally used a good amount of Perl, but now is starting to see more Python. My experience in bioinformatics has mostly involved dedicated software packages like Clustal, MrBayes, MCMC, and PAUP*.