How did you do it?
How did you learn all the stuff your are knowledgable as of right now?
What is your secret?
Books, experience, or the advantage of having both your mother and father in a technical field.
Being a VCS 2600 (as ancient a system can get) programmer myself I am still self-teaching myself other languages, although school does get in the way.
Ken, I really envy your intelligence :)
I will love to see some advice based from your own experience.
Thanks in advance.
Awesoken at
How did you learn all the stuff your are knowledgable as of right now?
I've been asked this many times and I still don't know a satisfying answer to it. I can't say how my brain works, but I can tell you about the environment I had when I was a child. I started programming at the age of 8. My parents both knew how to program, but it was really my older brother who introduced me to video games and inspired me to start programming. In the beginning, he was slightly ahead of me. I remember how one time, he was trying to explain BASIC's "DIM" statement to me. It probably took a few days before the idea sank in my head. Yes, even I had struggles. But the thing is, even with all the frustration, I never lost interest. I really can't explain why. Perhaps it was because I wasn't very good at other things. I really don't remember. The fact is, I stayed motivated for all these years - and that's really the key to becoming a master at any discipline.
Other things that were helpful:
* I was a gifted math student : )
* I had very little social life throughout school.
* I wasn't interested in sports as a child. I am now : P
* Asperger's Syndrome. I'm not sure if I have it, but it does seem to correlate with things in my life. Look it up - it's not as bad as it sounds. They say Einstein had it : )
Calypso at
what did you take in college?
Awesoken at
Most of what I learned in college didn't help with my programming. Part of the reason is because I took mostly Math (MA=Math, AM=Applied Math) and Engineering (EN) courses. Here's a complete list. If you really care, you can find a description of the courses at Brown's website.
cragtek at
Awesoken said
..trying to explain BASIC's "DIM" statement to me...
I'm often informed by my peers that I'm a master of the dim statement.
Phoenix at
Hello Ken, I'm just a new guy here who is interested in voxels - "interested" as in thinks they're pretty darned sweet, not "interested" as in "knows anything at all about how to make them" - and I notice you mentioned Asperger's Syndrome, which was quite the shock, i myself was diagnosed with this some years ago and i hadn't expected to see that! :) i think that's pretty interesting, but i don't really like to go round displaying it so maybe you don't either, i dunno, anyway, that's about all i wanted to say, sorry for acting a bit weird :P
later
Hazard at
Awesoken said
I started programming at the age of 8.
Hey, i started with an age of 9 to code BASIC with my good old C64. :) Starting in such early years seems to be really helpful. Unfortunately i haven't continued programming after switching to the PC. (Damn, i missed 8 years of coding-experience!)
With an age of 17 i started to learn Visual Basic at my informatics-school. After a few weeks i knew more about coding than my teacher. Until now it's still my favorite hobby (and partially my job).
But i'm still just a common hobby-coder. By no means compareable to Ken. You are absolutely genius! :)
Awesoken at
i myself was diagnosed with this some years ago and i hadn't expected to see that! i think that's pretty interesting, but i don't really like to go round displaying it so maybe you don't either
Actually, this is the first time I've mentioned it online. I've never been officially diagnosed because I've never actually seen a psychiatrist. My brother's mother-in-law happens to be one though - so that's the only reason I know about it. Asperger's wasn't well known until after I graduated high school.
I brought it up here because I thought it was relevant to the discussion. It helps me stay focused on whatever I'm interested in at the time. It also plays a role in my desire for isolation - which is wonderful for concentration, but bad for social situations. I'm talking about personal real-life situations, not anything online. At social events, when the primary purpose of being there is to talk with people, I usually just stand in the corner and observe. I don't enjoy meeting new people - and when I do, I get bored rather quickly. So, how do I deal with it? Simple: I don't. I do my best to get out of these things ... and then use the free time to work on my computer of course : P
Phoenix at
heh, that's just like me. thank god for computers and the internet for letting me pretend to be social while being left in peace! hey, i got a question. when you were learning your programming and stuff, was it like "okay, let's sit down and work on this so i can be really good" or was it more like you just did it cause it was fun? in other words, did you do it from discipline or from simple enjoyment?
Awesoken at
I think it all started from my parents being cheap. They hardly ever bought me (or my brother) the games we wanted. So, whenever we saw a cool game at the arcade or at a friend's house, our choices were either to nag our parents (which rarely worked), or program our own version.
So we started cloning games. Our first big project was a Pacman clone on the TI-99/4a. The game was awful. The monsters just sat there - as if they were hoping you would walk into them! Actually, the reason they didn't move was because TI-BASIC was so slow, you really couldn't do more. I continued using BASIC on my own on a variety of machines for 6 more years.
My parents introduced me to C around the time I got my first PC. I didn't like it at first though. When speed became enough of an issue, I started taking it more seriously. Some of my earliest C projects were clones of Breakout, Tetris, Super Mario Brothers, and Wolfenstein. I got quite good at it and nothing stopped me. Whenever I got stuck, I would either move onto a different programming project, or just keep thinking about it until the problem was solved. Why I never gave up is a mystery to me. But that's the way it was, and I loved it.
People started taking notice after I released Ken's Labyrinth in 1993. I was receiving phone calls from game companies nearly every day, but I didn't know how to handle them - I was just a 17 year old kid. I liked the respect though and didn't want that feeling to go away. So I started working on a Doom clone which we all know as Build. Shortly after I got it working, I sent Apogee a demo and they hired me. That was really the day it stopped being all about fun. I was now being paid to do a job, and I wasn't about to let them down.
Phoenix at
that's awesome. i really admire you for the mark you've made with Build, and your work with voxels. it's very much an inspiration. :)
and hey, i remember playing shareware Ken's Labyrinth back in the day! Somebody gave it to me on a red floppy, it said "massively improved by teams at EPIC and FUTURE CREW" and "high-res 380x240 graphics", heheheh. man that was fun. sadly neither the original version nor the OpenGL version will run properly on my current PC, at least not under win98. time to go pick a 386 out of somebody's trash heap.. :)
cragtek at
Ken,
You don't know anything about a game called "Run the Bunny" by any chance? I had a floppy which I got free with a pack of Duracell batteries containing a game by that name.
I only mention it because it looked a lot like Ken's Labyrinth and was wondering if it may have used the engine? I doubt you were involved, however, as it was exceptionally poor.
Long live MunchMan.
-C
Awesoken at
it said "massively improved by teams at EPIC and FUTURE CREW" and "high-res 380x240 graphics"
I wouldn't exactly call the Epic version "massively" improved, but whoever wrote that is entitled to their own opinion :) Also, the high-res mode was 360x240, not 380x240.
neither the original version nor the OpenGL version will run properly on my current PC, at least not under win98.
The classic version should work if you turn off digitized sound in the setup program. Also, the 2 older versions (Advanced Systems and Walken) may even work with full sound. Perhaps you didn't think of trying them. If you have an old ATI video card, then you can ignore my previous advice - they never worked right with Ken's Labyrinth.
You don't know anything about a game called "Run the Bunny" by any chance?
No, I've never heard of it. Ken's Labyrinth was never licensed as an engine like Build.
Phoenix at
heheh yeah the "massively improved" stuff is so obviously hype even if you don't know the game, but what do you expect from some unknown distributor's shareware floppy.. (: and the 380 must have been a silly typo :lol: always got a chuckle out of 380/360x240 being called "high res" too. should maybe have been "high(er) res (than VGA standard) mode"
and actually yeah the original version does work without sound, i just think sound is half the game for just about any game so playing without was kind of a last resort. But i was just playing earlier today. such nostalgia (: as for video "card", i have some kind of really old rage pro thing. which i sarcastically like to call a "video chip", cause it's onboard, but yeah. i've got the latest drivers which apparently support OpenGL and the Lab3d/GL thing crashes still. I'm supposing that my card is just not good enough. ah well.
edit: also i hope you don't me asking a small tiny gameplay question (: in the first level, past the 10cent door there's a room and then beyond that there's 3 "shoot this wall" walls with forcefield looking things blocking them. am i supposed to somehow be able to get past these?! i'm thinking not, but i need to know, this has always puzzled me!
Awesoken at
in the first level, past the 10cent door there's a room and then beyond that there's 3 "shoot this wall" walls with forcefield looking things blocking them. am i supposed to somehow be able to get past these?! i'm thinking not, but i need to know, this has always puzzled me!
You can shoot past the forcefield by buying a purple potion at the soda machine. You'll need a total of 12 cents to do the job (10 for the door, 2 for the potion). It's a shame that there are only 9 cents dispersed on the level. You'll need to find a way to generate some cash - without cheating : ) FYI, once you shoot down those blocks, there's not much else to do there other than to look at your prize.
Phoenix at
i bet behind the walls there's another wall saying "congratulations, you wasted"; slottime!; "minutes!" ;)
pretty clever making cheats a command-line activated thing, decreasing the chances of lazy people using cheats eh! :)
Agent ME at
Awesoken said
I brought it up here because I thought it was relevant to the discussion. It helps me stay focused on whatever I'm interested in at the time. It also plays a role in my desire for isolation - which is wonderful for concentration, but bad for social situations. I'm talking about personal real-life situations, not anything online. At social events, when the primary purpose of being there is to talk with people, I usually just stand in the corner and observe. I don't enjoy meeting new people - and when I do, I get bored rather quickly. So, how do I deal with it? Simple: I don't. I do my best to get out of these things ... and then use the free time to work on my computer of course : P
That seems to describe me to a point too. I guess its a small world :wink:
Phoenix at
bah! i'm not so unique anymore! :P
KillerQ13 at
Ken, have you ever had your IQ tested (professionally or not)?
Awesoken at
Does this count? http://www.testonfox.com/home.htm It was a nationally televised IQ test broadcast on Fox, so trust it with a grain of salt. : P My total was 54/60, which translates to 126 or "Very Good IQ, Above Average"
Anonymous at
Awesoken said
Does this count? http://www.testonfox.com/home.htm It was a nationally televised IQ test broadcast on Fox, so trust it with a grain of salt. : P My total was 54/60, which trnslates to 126 or "Very Good IQ, Above Average"
My IQ is 163 8) 8) 8)
TX at
Anonymous said
Awesoken said
Does this count? http://www.testonfox.com/home.htm It was a nationally televised IQ test broadcast on Fox, so trust it with a grain of salt. : P My total was 54/60, which trnslates to 126 or "Very Good IQ, Above Average"
My IQ is 163 8) 8) 8)
Different IQ tests use different scales. Because you did not know this, I must ascertain that your IQ is not 163. :)
cragtek at
TX said
Anonymous said
Awesoken said
Does this count? http://www.testonfox.com/home.htm It was a nationally televised IQ test broadcast on Fox, so trust it with a grain of salt. : P My total was 54/60, which trnslates to 126 or "Very Good IQ, Above Average"
My IQ is 163 8) 8) 8)
Different IQ tests use different scales. Because you did not know this, I must ascertain that your IQ is not 163. :)
The best IQ tests are based on computational ability, mechanical and spatial ability and vocabularic ability. If they don't rely on learned knowledge, it's a good sign.
Mensa offer official tests in this country for a fairly small fee.
-C
Anonymous at
cragtek said
TX said
Anonymous said
Awesoken said
Does this count? http://www.testonfox.com/home.htm It was a nationally televised IQ test broadcast on Fox, so trust it with a grain of salt. : P My total was 54/60, which trnslates to 126 or "Very Good IQ, Above Average"
My IQ is 163 8) 8) 8)
Different IQ tests use different scales. Because you did not know this, I must ascertain that your IQ is not 163. :)
The best IQ tests are based on computational ability, mechanical and spatial ability and vocabularic ability. If they don't rely on learned knowledge, it's a good sign.
Mensa offer official tests in this country for a fairly small fee.
-C
How can it NOT rely on learned knowledge?
Thats just stupid! All those smart people are smart, and have high IQ's because they locked themselves into their rooms and read books all day!
IQ = Learned Knowledge only.
cragtek at
Anonymous said
How can it NOT rely on learned knowledge?
Thats just stupid! All those smart people are smart, and have high IQ's because they locked themselves into their rooms and read books all day!
IQ = Learned Knowledge only.
Totally incorrect. I think you're referring to General Knowledge, which is merely part of someone's ability to retain information. That's why IQ tests incorporate memory tests.
I'm not exactly alone on this, it's globally and medically recognised to be correct.
-C
KillerQ13 at
So much bickering. I should try my hand at being a flamer. :-)
Anonymous at
KillerQ13 said
So much bickering. I should try my hand at being a flamer. :-)
Be my guest!!! :twisted:
Anonymous at
cragtek said
Anonymous said
How can it NOT rely on learned knowledge?
Thats just stupid! All those smart people are smart, and have high IQ's because they locked themselves into their rooms and read books all day!
IQ = Learned Knowledge only.
Totally incorrect. I think you're referring to General Knowledge, which is merely part of someone's ability to retain information. That's why IQ tests incorporate memory tests.
I'm not exactly alone on this, it's globally and medically recognised to be correct.
-C
THen IQ sucks, it has nothing to do with how smart a person is.
Agent ME at
Anonymous said
cragtek said
Anonymous said
How can it NOT rely on learned knowledge?
Thats just stupid! All those smart people are smart, and have high IQ's because they locked themselves into their rooms and read books all day!
IQ = Learned Knowledge only.
Totally incorrect. I think you're referring to General Knowledge, which is merely part of someone's ability to retain information. That's why IQ tests incorporate memory tests.
I'm not exactly alone on this, it's globally and medically recognised to be correct.
-C
THen IQ sucks, it has nothing to do with how smart a person is.
Are you... no, I'm gonna refrain from flaming.
Unlike some stupid TV shows (such as "Dexter's Lab"), intelligence has little to do with learned knowledge.
Being smart does not mean you know a lot. Lemme think of an example. Intelligence is more of the ability to manipulate what you know accurately.
I think I'm very intelligent. Lots of other people do too. But, you can ask me all you want what... hm... the 27th pharaoh of egypt was, and I'll have no CLUE! Ask me to memorize every word on a page of a book, and I'll only remember word-for-word the last sentence, and a bit about the general idea.
An example, someone very intelligent, would most likely catch on to new things reasonably quickly. If they knew a programming/scripting language well, and had a simple idea, they should be easily able to "translate" it into the code (NOTE: Some complex or not very powerful scripting languages, this might be pretty hard. I'm talking about the easier ones like BASIC).
OH! I JUST THOUGHT OF THE PERFECT EXAMPLE!
I saw this "AI" chatterbox program, which was pretty cool, but it wasn't really intelligent. It learned things perfectly. Tell it something, remembers it accurately forever. But can it manipulate this information? NOPE. It just repeats what it remembers about a topic that you mention. And I'm sure we can all agree that that's not intelligence.
BarrenSoul at
Would like to point something VERY important out.
IQ tests on the internet are NOT accurate at all ok? trust me :)
you need to be evaluated by someone who is certified to administer them and it needs to be a recognized test like the WISC-R.
I took a real one and have an IQ of 125 over all and 134 in verbal :)
Tomkh at
An idea:
Instead of trying to find out:
"how intelligent and glorious we are ?"
why not ask yourself:
"how much limited we are, and what stop us from beeing just better ?"
(in reasoning, inventing new ideas, problems solving, writting in english ;)etc...)
For example: being able to find out, that let's say "your inteligence is below avarage", will probably turn you into depression. On the contrary finding out, that "you are above avarage", makes you feel brilliant and better than others (but obviously you are a fool, probably just like the others :P).
However being able to spot the actual limits of our brain (as an individual or limits of human nation in general), should help to improve ourselves, point out what we should practice more or even how to create better tools/methods to assist our thinking process.
There is one problem though: I suck :P
BarrenSoul at
well you've pointed out something that ties in closely with a saying I invented
"True strength comes from knowing what you can and can't do"
-A.J. Coles
Awesoken at
Hi Tom!
I think what you're saying is that it's more practical to compare yourself against your own goals and limits rather than with the rest of the population. Knowing the results of an IQ test doesn't do anybody any good.
It's nice to see you on my forums. In fact, I should be honored. Why? (warning: shameless plug : ) I did a google for your "MoonEdit" program today and the number of hits has exploded!
Today: "Results 1 - 10 of about 468 for moonedit"
I think it was only 20 hits last week. You are definitely being noticed : )
Frobozz at
Do that search again and click on the "10". Something I never figured out was why the stupid thing always showed all the numbers but on a different search page showed fewer ones? Oh and clicking "10" will instead give you "8". :P
If it matters, 490 today. An increase of 22 in four days. Nice.
David at
There's something I just can't help myself pointing here: IQ tests measure only 2 out of 7 habilities (numeric and verbal habilities). They ignore 5 kinds of intelligence which I think are much more important for our day-to-day lives, such as the well know "emotional intelligence" among others.
Greetings
Anonymous at
Tomkh said
An idea:
Instead of trying to find out:
"how intelligent and glorious we are ?"
why not ask yourself:
"how much limited we are, and what stop us from beeing just better ?"
(in reasoning, inventing new ideas, problems solving, writting in english ;)etc...)
For example: being able to find out, that let's say "your inteligence is below avarage", will probably turn you into depression. On the contrary finding out, that "you are above avarage", makes you feel brilliant and better than others (but obviously you are a fool, probably just like the others :P).
However being able to spot the actual limits of our brain (as an individual or limits of human nation in general), should help to improve ourselves, point out what we should practice more or even how to create better tools/methods to assist our thinking process.
There is one problem though: I suck :P
masterlee at
David said
There's something I just can't help myself pointing here: IQ tests measure only 2 out of 7 habilities (numeric and verbal habilities). They ignore 5 kinds of intelligence which I think are much more important for our day-to-day lives, such as the well know "emotional intelligence" among others. Greetings
Peoples with an high IQ can easily establish an high EQ. If they want.