Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by tristanstraub 5326 days ago
doing these courses next to full time work is tough, but its just so tempting.
6 comments

I work full time and I am taking AI and ML. Fortunately, I am allowed to spend some time doing this at work, but it is still taking my weekends. I think one class is ok, two is a bit too much but doable. I wouldn't do three.
As a rough time estimate for you, the AI Class is taking me about 2 evenings of maybe 2-3 hours each per week. Your mileage may vary.
A few coworkers and I signed up for the DB class and ran into the same problem. What we decided to do instead is just read through the material whenever we get a chance and not worry too much about the assignments (unless we get time). We don't necessarily get all the benefits, but at least we're able to take something good out of it.
That's what I've been doing as well. No "certificate of accomplishment" at the end of the class, but still the benefits of learning the material. Seems like a fair trade.
In my opinion, the real learning comes from doing the exercises. So if you are reading the material but not doing any quiz or exercise, you aren't learning as much. And if you aren't doing the exam, which has a time limit and you can't repeat until you get it perfect, you don't know how much you are or aren't learning.
Just do it. TV can wait.

I'm currently working at two jobs, and just barely able to do the ML and AI classes.

Starting in January, I'm down to one job, so naturally I signed up for Cryptography, Game Theory, and Natural Language Processing.

Just do it!

Totally agree. I signed up for the DB course but could not keep up due to responsibilities of my full time job. However, I've kept the assignments and plan to do them later.
I signed up for AI and DB classes next to a 45 hour/week job, and dropped the AI course. I'm having trouble keeping up while maintaining a life, but it is possible, though!

Seriously, consider only one class if you have any trouble self-regulating.