(Part 3) Top products from r/uwaterloo

I think your idea of seeking assistance is an excellent one. Most people don't realize the impact of mental health in tackling intellectually challenging tasks. An athlete knows that to perform well, they must take care of their physical health by working out, controlling diet, etc... Similarly, one with intellectual pursuits need to take care of their mental health, but often they are unfamiliar on how to do so. Sleeping well, eating properly, etc. are very important, and instead of a coach, as in the case of an athlete, counselling services, psychologists, psychiatrists, etc. can help in training for mental health.

Be honest when working with Counselling Services or psychotherapists. If CS hasn't been working well for you, explain to them why you think that is. They will provide you with a list of psychologists / therapists in the area. The University Health Insurance Policy (UHIP) covers 80% of the costs of a psychologist. CS will explain this to you in greater detail.

Other than that, I can recommend a few things to get in better (mental) shape.

• Hit the Gym. Working out is the best all-around fix for every problem in life. Visit /r/fitness and read the starter's list. Before you know it, you'll be sleeping well, feeling energetic and more motivated than you've every been in your life.
  
  
• Read books about things that you like. For example, if you're looking forward to a career in finance, read The Big Short. Also read some books that might help you get motivated. I recommend Talent is Overrated.
  
  
• Continue working with CS or a psychotherapist and get (mentally) fit. Even the faculty and staff at the University also take advantage of these services, because they know its importance.
  
  And remember, this is exactly why you're here in University! This is part of your education, and as you tackle these challenges, you will grow as a person. Good luck!

I've been mostly finding that website coding is insanely helpful.

HackerRank, CodeForces, TopCoder are all great resources for "competition" problems (which translate really well into interview problems and problem-solving in general).

I read this book, it actually proved to be a lot more helpful for my Riot Games interview, since it had to do a lot with "in-depth" thinking, which this book is great at helping break down (I always found "Cracking the Coding Interview" to be way too high level, especially if you're in a pinch): http://www.amazon.com/Data-Structures-Algorithms-Made-Easy/dp/1468108867

(NOTE: If you're a primarily Java developer, there's an equivalent book for the above, just search "Data Structures and Algorithms in Java", from the same author)

I learned a lot more from that book than I did McDowell's, since I found that this author actually cared about doing "deep dives" into each of the topics presented. I own an earlier edition - not to say this one isn't great, I'm actually pretty sure the "algorithmic puzzles" he presents are a lot more relevant to current programming interviews.

There's also the age-old CLRS, which I found to be useful for any kind of theoretical computer science topic (Runtime analysis, big-O, etc): http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Algorithms-Edition-Thomas-Cormen/dp/0262033844/

Let me know what you think! -- I've been using both of these to get my next job (hopefully full-time)! ^_^

UW robbed me of my love for reading for fun.

A ~year after graduating, I was recommended Look Who's Back, which is a funny book about Hitler waking up in 2011, with no recollection on what happened.

It turned into a movie, and is a good/short read.

After that, I read:

• The metamorphosis (Kafka)
  
• Atlas Shrugged (Rand)
  
• Debt, the first 5000 Years (Graeber)
  
• Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage (Murakami)
  
• ...and a bunch of others
  
  I forgot how much I like spending an afternoon sipping coffee and reading a great book.

If you're just looking to learn instead of fulfilling a degree requirement then it is a probably more useful to pickup a book and do it yourself.

Some useful subs:

• /r/personalfinancecanada
  
• /r/personalfinance
  
• /r/investing
  
  Some useful books:
  
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Common-Sense-Mutual-Funds-Anniversary/dp/0470138130
  
• http://www.amazon.com/All-About-Asset-Allocation-Second/dp/0071700781
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Random-Walk-Down-Wall-Street/dp/0393340740
  
• http://www.amazon.com/The-Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising/dp/1589795474
  
  The takeaway is that when it comes to investing there is no secret that will make you rich overnight. Picking random stocks hoping they suddenly shoot up is no different than gambling. Even the most well paid people in finance with all of their years of schooling cannot consistently beat the market.
  
  Investing is a long term commitment.

I'm not a DD student, but here are my two cents on the difficulty of Math 135/137:

The reason most people talk about the difficulty of Math 135/137 is because of proofs. Both of these courses are proof-based, and even though they're intro courses (and go through proof techniques) it's often difficult to get used to thinking in a "proofy" way if you've never had to do proofs before. Content-wise, the courses are not super difficult, but they are harder than HS math courses (the average grade in these courses is about mid-70's, and everyone who takes them probably had a 90+ in HS calc!).

If you want to improve your chances of doing well in this course, I recommend doing some math contests (or just doing the practice ones on the CEMC website) to get some intro proof practice. You can also check out How to Read and Do Proofs which is a great intro to proofs book (if this is something you struggle with).

While you're taking the courses, make sure you understand the why behind everything. Don't just try to remember ALL OF THE PROOFS, because that won't help you with a new proof! Understand the thought process, and what the theorems really mean, and you'll be fine. Also, actually do the assignments, and try to do them yourself. (This advice applies to 136 as well, which is linear algebra 1).

LOL it seems interesting to me. I'm reading https://www.amazon.ca/Design-Implementation-FreeBSD-Operating-System/dp/0321968972/ref=dp_ob_title_bk right now.

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Maybe its good in theory, and not in practice.

I'm an HR professional and have been giving career advice for years. Have you read What Color Is Your Parachute? It might help you figure things out.

https://www.amazon.ca/What-Color-Your-Parachute-2017/dp/039957820X

You can probably find a copy in the library. :)

> how does one improve social skills?

Reading some books on how to deal with social anxiety may help. This one has pretty good recommendations. Mark Manson also has an easy to read book.

For myself, I enjoy stoic literature. It's good to know that even during times of hell, you can still find some inner peace in your mind. The point of stoicism isn't to imagine that bad things don't happen, but that you are much more capable of dealing with terrible situations than you would otherwise think.

Not sure if fully related to your situation, but when I struggled with school I was recommended this book from my counsellor:
https://www.amazon.ca/Mindset-Psychology-Carol-S-Dweck/dp/0345472322

The short of it is that you either think you know everything already and are reaching a limit, or you come to internalize that you are able to grow and overcome challenges with time, hard work, and the right support.

I really liked:

http://www.amazon.ca/Learn-Program-C-John-Smiley/dp/0072225351

This book should be good enough to last you through undergrad.

>Again, name a non-asian stable country.

>not knowing when our stability started, not knowing Western history, forgetting what nuance is yet again

>White people built the cities and their wealth

Fuck off. Don't reply to me anymore. I'm done with this White Pride^TM historically revisionist bullshit. Non-white people aren't people to you, and any of their contributions, innovation, or leadership in the Western world since its inception are invalid, so frankly, you aren't a person to me either. Your brand of culture that you express is trash.

It's cultish vomit, you should kys, and you should export yourself elsewhere where you aren't enjoying the fruits of past immigrants' labour out of ethical commitment.

Not completely on this topic (I don't have the time to find literature on hand for our conversation), but because of your illiteracy (combined with brash, dehumanizing extremity) I've noticed in some areas, here are a few accessible books I'd recommend reading in general

https://books.google.ca/books?id=XzJdpd8DbYEC&printsec=frontcover&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

http://www.amazon.com/Why-West-Rules-Now-Patterns/dp/0312611692

http://www.amazon.com/Guns-Germs-Steel-Fates-Societies/dp/0393317552

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe_and_the_People_Without_History

and, just to really get on your nerves, here's some interesting triggering history of philosophy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muqaddimah

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_Khaldun

http://www.historyofphilosophy.net/islamic-world

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibn_al-Haytham

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avicenna

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Averroes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Ghazali

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahab_al-Din_Yahya_ibn_Habash_Suhrawardi

http://www.salaam.co.uk/knowledge/al-jahiz.php

Islamic scholars also scoured the earth to obtain copies of books and texts so that they may build on that knowledge and share it with future generations. But progression in society is not always a certainty.

Took the course a couple years back with Van de Waal (albeit not online). The midterm I had was VERY similar in content to the questions from this study guide (probably pdf versions available online somewhere).

I would just rock questions from the study guide until you know it cold, and not focus as much on the notes. That's what I did and it went well.

Disclaimer: This was 3 years ago, and the format of the midterms may have changed since then, but at the time it was just 50 multiple choice.

Try reading How To Cook Everything: The Basics. It's basically a cook book for people that just want to make basic things, nothing fancy.

I think this is what you're looking for

No, but I have this textbook:

here!

>Every problem of mine can be traced back to my height.

That literally reads like a line out of this book. Dude, avoid the rope, don't cope, live instead.