Hey all,
I'm noticing that I want to know more about the basics of theoretical computer science, subjects like the theory of computation.
This is a leisure activity for me (at least for the time being), as opposed to something that I'm going to put substantial study into. I'd like to more or less passively watch a series of videos on the topic, to get a first pass understanding of the conceptual vocabulary and how those concepts relate to each other.
There are lots of courses / series on YouTube, and I don't know which to pick. I'm currently planning to just sample from a few of them, and see which I like best, but I thought I would ask here if there was a series that folks found particularly informative, or clear, or well taught, or otherwise good.
If there was one that you liked, please share!
I'm also glad to hear suggestions about better forums or alternative methods for answering questions like this one. For that matter, I'm curious if people have heuristics for making assessments like these.
Thanks!
Eli
I think it depends on what you're looking to get out of this.
I took theory of computation at university with a textbook by Michael Sipser, which is the standard textbook on the subject for many university classes. I just did a cursory look on YouTube, and most of the things I find are university lecture series, e.g. one from UC Davis; these might be dry to listen to.
If you're willing to dive into written material, I think Scott Aaronson is probably a very good choice for technical writing that explains clearly, without assuming too much.
Who can name the biggest number? will give you a quick introduction to ideas in computability theory.
Past that, I suspect that his lecture series Great Ideas in Theoretical Computer Science will also serve as a useful overview to many different topics you'll likely encounter when studying the field of theoretical CS.
Also, happy to talk about things personally. Feel free to ping me here or elsewhere where we've connected if you have questions.