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Ask HN: On giving up?

2 pointsby simplegeekalmost 9 years ago
Hi,<p>I am a full-time programmer and don&#x27;t have a degree in CS. I intend to learn Scheme and have been working my way using this book https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Concrete-Abstractions-Introduction-Computer-Science&#x2F;dp&#x2F;0534952119.<p>I had a aim to solve all exercises so it was going well until I got stuck in one of the exercises in Chapter 7. I found it non-trivial and though I let the problem cook in the back of my head for more than a month but I couldn&#x27;t solve it.<p>Now this is effecting me because a)- I am feeling like giving up on this book, because I wanted to solve all exercises and now it seems I cannot b)- after this book I planned to finish SICP but now I think if I cannot solve this one may be I cannot finish SICP as well c)- and I am also beginning to doubt my abilities as a programmer.<p>So I need help from people who learned Scheme (using this book or SICP or at MIT) or who are master of their arts---is it okay if you&#x27;re unable to solve few problems in the book? Should I carry on and finish the book?<p>Part of me says I should carry on and finish whatever exercises I can solve but it&#x27;s sort of discouraging that I am unable to solve a problem after a decent industry experience :(

3 comments

victorhugo31337almost 9 years ago
Sounds like you&#x27;re suffering from &quot;imposter syndrome&quot;. If you&#x27;ve made it to chapter 7, keep going! I&#x27;m certain most people wouldn&#x27;t have made it to chapter 3.
jpeg_heroalmost 9 years ago
took berkeley cs61a one of the ancestral homes of sicp.<p>it aint easy, and these were bright light 18 year olds.<p>keep going, skip if you need. look up the answer and learn from it.<p>but G*d Damn sicp, was it really necessary for one of the first assignments to do newton&#x27;s approximations of derivatives!!<p>sheesh, how about a good old tic-tac-toe game ;)
calcsamalmost 9 years ago
Plot twist: the exercise was actually impossible.