On Programming, feat. Nick Troccoli | Traces, Appendix 8

A conversation with Nick Troccoli about programming, lessons from programming, going from learning to teaching, and more.

Find me at [email protected]

About the Guest:
Nick Troccoli is a Lecturer in the Stanford Computer Science Department. He started as a full-time lecturer at Stanford in Fall 2018, after graduating from Stanford in June 2018 with Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in Computer Science. He has taught CS106X, CS107, CS110 and CS111. In 2022, he was named to the Tau Beta Pi Teaching Honor Roll. During his undergraduate career, he specialized in Systems, and during his graduate career he specialized in Artificial Intelligence. He was heavily involved in teaching as both an undergraduate and graduate student; he was an undergraduate Section Leader in the CS 198 Section Leading Program, a graduate CA (Course Assistant) for CS 181, the Head TA for CS 106A and CS 106B, and the summer 2017 instructor for CS 106A. In 2017 he was awarded the Forsythe Teaching Award and the Centennial TA Award for excellence in teaching.

References:
- Eric Roberts' The Art and Science of Java (textbook): https://amzn.to/3Q1W7ti
- Eric Roberts' Programming Abstractions in Java (textbook): https://amzn.to/3Fv2DUH
- Eric Roberts' Programming Abstractions in C++ (textbook): https://amzn.to/3MdUurF

Set Up:
  - Camera: https://amzn.to/3PZVscb (don't laugh)
  - Microphone: https://amzn.to/46f3pB5
  - Teleprompter Stand: https://amzn.to/3tgS98y
  - Telepromter App: https://amzn.to/46jdH31
  - Teleprompter Screen:  https://amzn.to/3PNfKFI (yup)
  - Headphones: https://amzn.to/46gMSwo

Timestamps:
00:00 Nick Troccoli
02:01 What about Computer Science
05:06 Debugging
09:34 Pseudocode
11:55 Most Valuable Lessons
18:03 Teaching CS
20:47 Light Bulb Moments
27:40 Top-Down Programming
33:27 Industry and Academia
36:44 Adapting Classes to the Times 38:14
42:47 LLMs in CS Education
48:08 Programming Languages
53:16 Intro Classes vs Advanced Classes
57:10 Misconceptions