SICP makes me feel incompetent How do I overcome this?

[fzkl]

I have so far attempted to work through the book three times and then quit. Each time I start from the beginning, go through every line and do every problem in the exercises and then eventually stop somewhere down the lane (within less than the first 50 pages).

After a lot of mental effort I decided to make another attempt. However this time I decided to analyze why I stopped the first three times and found that I stopped every time at the exact same page. At this page was a problem which made me realize: "Here is a solution to a problem which I could probably have never ever thought of by myself". I think this somehow depressed me and made me wonder if things were going to get very tough for me to understand or its probably the fear of encountering such problems more and more as I go through the book.

Note that I thoroughly enjoyed working on the exercises until this part of the book. It was like an orgasm of the mind. But somehow when I get to this problem, I feel incompetent. It doesn't help much that I am bit mathematically handicapped.

The problem I am talking about here is the counting change problem in the first chapter.

[thegoleffect]

"Here is a solution to a problem which I could probably have never ever thought of by myself". Now you have a clever solution you can use as a tool in your belt of tricks. You might end up applying to a problem of your own on your own volition. That would be a feat on its own.

How much time did you allocate to working at the problem before looking at the solution? What do you want to get out of SICP? A book won't help you become a master on any subject by itself. Many people slave for tens, hundreds, thousands of hours on subjects that interest them occasionally without what you might consider "progress".

It appears that you did give up and peeked at the solution. So logically, you do not know whether you would figure it out on your own or not - you've lost that opportunity. The thing is, everyone experiences setbacks, pitfalls, speedbumps - FAILURES. This is nothing to be ashamed of and if you let it, by learning from it, you can help prevent anxiety and move on.

[fzkl]

This wasn't a problem in the exercise section. This was simply a problem solved to explain a concept. So I didn't really peek at any solution. I was supposed to see this solution as an example to understand one of the methods of problem solving using recursion. (not denying that I could have tried to figure it out on my own instead of reading further in the main text)

But I agree with your last two sentences.

[Confusion]

Here is a solution to a problem which I could probably have never ever thought of by myself

I'm not sure why you suppose you could never have thought of it, but I think it is much more likely that you would have thought of it, given a different background and history. Most likely, that history would involve an example of the same sort of problem being solved in the same sort of way.

Once you've seen solutions, they seem easy. So easy in fact, that it leads you to wonder why it took until, say, 1700 AD before someone came up with it. Much of present day knowledge has only existed for a few centuries and many 'obvious' things have been missed by millenia of great minds. The lesson from that is: we don't learn by being original or by having revelations: we learn by example and by abstraction from those examples. This is exactly such an example: you weren't supposed to have been able to think of it yourself. It's an example that shows you the way, that teaches you, that enables you to, maybe some day in the future, be original or have a revelation.

[shaunxcode]

I am not sure if this is the best advice but: have you tried to implement a scheme yourself? I found doing so gave me a much better understanding and appreciation of SICP. Also you might consider starting with "simply scheme", "how to design programs" or "the little schemer".

If it makes you feel better I am currently going through the same thing with "the art of prolog". It is just such a huge departure from everything I have ever done before that I am constantly running into the same barrier you spoke of "I wouldn't have ever even have asked that question". But that is why I am reading it - to flex my head. Once I fully understand it I know I'm going to miss that feeling just like the first time your muscles hurt form a hard work out or conditioning session. Once they develop - unless you injure them - it's never quite the same rewarding burn.

[SwellJoe]

Have you watched the videos online that cover this text (there are actually a couple of different sets with different professors, but Abelson and Sussman is probably the way to go)?

I haven't worked through the whole book, either, but I found having someone explain things made it much clearer, and I've made it more than halfway through without running into any serious roadblocks.

[fzkl]

To clarify, I understood the solution to the problem. But what bothers me more is that I couldn't have thought of it by myself.

[lsc]

and? I don't know about you, but I think I am reading the wrong book if the author is not better than I am at the subject at hand.

[fzkl]

I don't have an issue with the authors being smarter than I am. I think they are awesome. Like I said, I liked the challenge of the exercises for which the authors didn't give any solution. And when I cracked these exercises it felt really good.

And I have read many other intellectually stimulating books, but those books don't make me feel like what I am feeling right now.