tostitos1979

Surely your joking Mr Feinman. I was a child prodigy eons ago and wished I read that when I was a teen.

I have a PhD in CS but am a huge udemy fan/user. The itch it scratches when I want to learn about a brand new topic. You asked for good courses .. Andrew LeMoth's course in electronics is absolutely brilliant. He does the lecture in a very unconventional style .. almost like he stayed awake for 40 hours and recorded the whole thing. It isn't college level .. I.e. no differential equations but it is brilliant. I have also gotten my money's worth from FPGA courses and those on arm/rtos programming. Oh .. once I got a course on wireless charging just to support a a blogger who goes by afrotechmod. It was short but great content, and let me say thanks to someone I admire.

The ai lectures on udemy are a bit weaker in my opinion. YouTube and university content is better.

In contrast, I have never paid for coursera, edx or audacity. A key thing is the price point of 15 bucks .. I don't feel bad at all blowing cash on the udemy courses .. it is like a movie ticket. A 100 usd course feels like real money.

Also a confluence user. Our content does go out of date periodically and it is annoying at times (wish I could trivially switch everything to md or html) .. but I think it solves the problem posed by the OP.

Is this pepper's ghost, or something different?

I had such an a-hole interviewer the last (and hence final) interview I did at Google. His attitude was ... oh .. you have a PhD, let me show you how smart I am.

Just like getting into YC isn't necessary to be a successful founder, getting into Google isn't necessary to be a successful engineer. There are tons of companies out there, and many pay better than Google.

Hey .. I just came across Mu in the context of the BBC Microbit. From a few days of hacking with it, I must say I am very impressed. The ability to flash code to the microbit, the automatic install of libraries .. I remember thinking "I'm going to get an error message now". When things just worked, I went wow!

Last I looked at Vex, I seem to recall being surprised that the software was not free. Was a non-starter for me as a hobbyist.

I thought they charged on a per minute basis. Still ... a valuable resource.

I haven't done the costing but seems buying a cheapo printer is more economical than using any per-minute service .. especially, when one is getting started. That said, last cheapo printer I got kept breaking down .. when I was in an inspired mood, I had to wrestle with the darn printer. Seems like a nice model where I can rely on someone else to keep the printer working - if it is cheap enough :)

Yup .. I also encountered the microbit recently, and it is very well done IMO. A bit easier to use than the Arduino for lil kids.

I got a Cozmo ... has vision and a Python API, which seems like a good idea. Haven't had a chance to really use it. It was also a bit expensive.

I have made my own robots in the past. Frankly, my flakey hw killed my sw enthusiasm. That's why, I am happy to pay a bit for functioning robot hw.

Next, I want to get into robot arms. Something with the DoF of a kuka arm but doesn't need to perform as well and on a low budget. My current prospect is the Dobot Magician but I am still on the fence.

I was "over contributing" to my 401K for years ... I realized this when it came time to buy a house and fork up a down payment. I was rich in 401K but not in liquid cash :( Still no house but do have dependents, etc. Depends on your situation of course.

Btw ... kudos for living at home while making good income. It is very, very easy to go on the hedonic treadmill and rent a fancy apartment, but a nice car, etc. The longer you can maintain a student lifestyle, the better off will be your pocket book.

Not sure why you were downvoted. I feel the same way. People might be going boo-hoo ... but they don't understand the point you are making. I presume you have a high paying job in a very expensive area. If you moved to a cheaper area, the job would either not be available or be at a much, much lower pay. Also, you probably pay 40+% of your income in taxes.

Just because I get a high software salary now, I have no confidence this will be the case 3-5 years from now. I feel the same.