The Mentor Every "Computing" Student Should Learn From

A big shout-out to my mentor, Dr. Muhammad Nauman, also known as recluze!

I want to give a strong recommendation to all my juniors and peers in the "computing" field.

Whether you are in Computer Science, Software, AI, Cyber Security, Data Sciences, IT, or Systems. You must check out his YouTube channel, recluze. 💻

Channel link: https://www.youtube.com/@recluze/playlists

This channel is a masterpiece by Dr. Nauman. Two playlists I think everyone should watch are:

Introduction to Computing
How to Approach Learning

There are many other playlists that cover the main subjects of computer science.

Why Dr. Nauman?

Dr. Nauman is not a traditional professor. He is a teacher with real-world experience from both schools (academia) and the industry. This means what you learn is not just a normal lecture. He teaches how to use these things in a real industry setting, which many traditional teachers do not know. 👨‍🏫

On a lighter note:

Traditional Teacher "Access Modifiers are for security." (If you understand this, you get it!) 😉

You will learn what computer science truly is: problem-solving. It's not about which programming language is better or a debate like, "I know C, you know Python, I'm a web developer, you're an app developer," and so on.

What you will learn from his videos:

The real meaning and philosophy of "computing."
What abstraction is and its power.
Why you should not limit yourself to one area of computing.
What is wrong with the curriculum for CS, software, AI, cyber, DS, and systems.
Why development is important, even if you don't want to do it in the future.
What math is necessary and how to learn it for computer science. 📚

Having a big picture of computing is very important. Without it, you won't understand the purpose of your courses or why the university is teaching them. For example, why should you study networks if you want to be an app developer or an ML engineer? But with a complete overview of computer science, you will not only understand the importance of every topic but also be more interested in it.

The big picture and the concept of abstraction are explained in the second video of the "Introduction to Computing" playlist.

His guided roadmaps and semester plans are also very good. In the "Super Charge Your Semester" series, you will learn about:

What skills are good to learn at each stage.
Why certain skills are important.
Why learning web development is necessary even if you don't want to do it later.
How to understand scale.

My Approach (Tried and Tested):

Why am I recommending this? What have I achieved with his help?

I can now learn anything new without fear.
I have learned many programming languages, technologies, and frameworks for the sake of some purposes:
- Python to learn the basics of computing.
- C++ for learning OOPs (Object-Oriented Programming).
- JavaScript for web front-ends.
- Express and Node for back-end development.
- React for the front-end, because my "carento" project was getting too complex.
- FastAPI to create RESTful APIs in Python.
- Next.js for my portfolio website. (Why? If I know React, why use Next? For better SEO. I want my portfolio pages to be rendered on the server so that search engines can easily find the content and serve my website when people search.)
- MongoDB for a web application for "A1 Energy Solutions" (a real-world project I am working on now).
- PostgreSQL for RDBMS (Relational Database Management System) because it's open-source and part of Oracle.
- JWT and session for authorization and authentication.

My projects were live, but my $200 credit ran out, and now I have a $25 bill. So, I cannot share them right now, but you can watch the demos on my LinkedIn profile.

Is all this possible in one year? Yes, I did it, so anyone can do it. 💪

Does this mean my GPA is bad? Not at all. My current CGPA is 3.945. 🎓

How can we get a good GPA in a semester system? "Jagte Raho" (Stay alert). And never let anyone think you are not a hard worker.

In the end, I want to thank Dr. Nauman for his great and selfless effort to make these lectures, guides, and other things available to us. 🙏