The Web Adventures of a University Student

University years

Right after finishing high school, I had a clear idea of the faculty I wanted to choose; since I was a child, I spent my days at the computer, so I decided to enroll in Computer Science. Due to a series of reasons mainly related to my disability, I couldn't attend classes but went to the faculty exclusively during exam times. This put me at a significant disadvantage as I missed the teacher's explanations and had to manage mostly on my own. Occasionally, I had access to notes taken by my classmates, but they were handwritten and not all legible because, unfortunately, not everyone has clear handwriting, and being notes taken in haste, one couldn't expect more. Other times, they sent me audio recordings of the lectures, and transcribing them took an enormous amount of time. It was unfortunate that it wasn't yet the era of artificial intelligence; otherwise, it would have greatly helped speed up this process. I could have used OpenAI's Whisper.

How I overcame the difficulties

To address these challenges, I decided to adopt a precise method. First, I would get the syllabus from the faculty's website for the subject I needed to study and any recommended textbooks. This gave me a general idea of the topics to study. At this point, I downloaded the digital book (I can't browse physical books). I saved a lot thanks to Library Genesis, a platform where you can download books for free; almost all were available there. Fortunately, there are people who scan them. I believe that knowledge should be freely accessible to everyone. The book business discriminates against those who cannot afford them due to exorbitant prices. Who knows how many give up studying because of this?

However, it wasn't always easy to understand all the various concepts explained. In those cases, I had no one to ask about it. My best friend during that time became Google. I learned various Google dorking techniques; thanks to this, I found any study material I needed. I studied from slides and texts written by some of the best universities in the world. This also allowed me to train my ability to understand different languages. Being multilingual offers great advantages. At least I can boast that all the knowledge I have is entirely self-taught and is the result of hard work and sweat. Thinking this makes me very proud.

How It Is Today

Studying independently today has become even easier. Now there are AIs. My favorite is Perplexity, the only one I trust because it cites all the sources from which it gathers information, making it easy to verify whether what it says is reliable or not.