Hello everyone! Happy Wednesday and welcome again to our featured post! Before we start, we would like to thank everyone for staying with us. It’s 2018 and yet all of you were still there to support us. Thank you very much and may all of you have a prosperous New Year!

Moving foward, our featured author, Wladston Ferreira Filho, author of Computer Science Distilled: Learn the Art of Solving Computational Problems, one of the best selling books and Top 10 in Computer and Technology category and Top 100 in Computer Science category.

Get to know him and learn more about his book by reading his interview below. Enjoy reading and please don’t forget to share this with your friends!

GET TO KNOW THE AUTHOR

Name: Wladston Ferreira Filho
Background: Full stack web programmer, complex networks researcher
Favorite gadget: The S1 MP3 player (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S1_MP3_player)
Hobbies: Learning foreign languages and swimming

INTERVIEW

What is Computer Science Distilled: Learn the Art of Solving Computational Problems about, and why should our readers read it?

Many people start to write code without a university degree in computer science. They often receive little computer science education. Some think computer science knowledge is only helpful for academic researchers. Others might even try to start studying computer science, but get discouraged the learning material that’s out there… it’s often really hard to follow, full of super formal mathematical constructs. That’s because almost all the material on computer science was designed to train scientists, not everyday programmers.

Computer Science Distilled covers the bare minimum of computer science every programming beginner should know. It’s presented in the simplest possible way, in a light and approachable writing style. It will spark one’s interest in the science of using machines to solve problems.

What, in your opinion, is the current most exciting technological advancement and why?

Certainly, Bitcoin Cash and the Blockchain technology. Bitcoin Cash allows anyone to transfer money instantly over the internet with near-zero fees, and it has enough scaling capacity to encompass the global economy. Having technology that eliminates the need for a middle man, and allows people to transact directly across borders will usher a new era of economic development and freedom.

What inspired you to write your book/s?

My friends. They pushed me to write a book and share my expertise with beginners. I’m apparently their “go to” friend for explaining tech-related news and concepts. They told me I had a nice way of explaining complex things in easy terms.

If there’s one chapter in your book people should have read, which one should it be, and why?

The third chapter. It outlines the different strategies for algorithmically attacking a problem that most beginners are unaware of. Chapter 2 is also very important, it’s about measuring the degree of efficiency of an algorithm. Chapter 2 was published on CSS-Tricks, you can read it here: https://css-tricks.com/computer-science-distilled-chapter-2-complexity.

As an author, which book made the most impact on you?

A book called “Authority”, by Nathan Barry. It made me believe I could write a high-quality book as a first-time author, and that I could be successful without friends in big publishing companies recommending my work.

If there’s one subject you’d like to see a book about, what would it be?

I really wanted a book that taught the essential concepts of cryptography (elliptic curves, zero knowledge proofs, Shamir’s secret, etc.) for people without an advanced number theory background, like me.

Another topic that deserves more books is Quantum Computing. I tried to understand the quantum mechanism to factor prime numbers fast (Shor’s Algorithm), but all the resources I found explain the algorithm in terms only people with an advanced degree in quantum physics can understand. We could and should have way more approachable quantum computing books.

What would you like to ask the next author being interviewed?

Ask whether he or she believes Artificial Intelligence will reach a point of singularity and understand human language, and perform any task more efficiently than we do.

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It’s been long since we started curating lists of the best programming books, and this year, we aim to give our dear readers the best of the best so please, don’t stop supporting us. To our featured author, Wladston, thank you very much for the time you gave us. It may be a short interview but we know all of our readers will have an idea what your book is about and why you wrote it. Thank you so much and more books for you this year and for the coming years! To our readers, we will not be here if not for all of you, so thank you very much for following us. Don’t forget to check our social media accounts, like and share them too. Happy New Year everyone!

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