Floyd Horng
Sep 2, 2018 · 2 min read

CS371p Fall 2018: Floyd Horng

Week 1 (Aug 27 — Sept 2)

Hey there stranger! I’m ecstatic to hear that you’ve stumbled upon my semester-long blog series! My name is Floyd Horng, your atypical 3rd year UTCS undergrad and former quantum chemistry researcher turned indie game developer. Throughout the semester, I’ll be detailing my exciting adventures in Dr. Downing’s Object Oriented Programming class and my life working full time on my own production games.

What did you do this past week?

This week started off at a snail’s pace. Returning from my internship at Roblox, I mostly focused on unpacking a tangle of cables, clothes, and souvenirs from my suitcases. Then Dr. Downing’s class began on Wednesday, and we hit the ground running, rapidly covering our syllabus and the foundations of C++.

What’s in your way?

Nothing! I’m thrilled to be learning C++ in OOP, and progress on my indie games is picking up swimmingly

What will you do next week?

My focus next week will be stabilizing my schedule. I hope to form strong habits waking up early, working out regularly, and not procrastinating assignments.

What are your expectations of the class?

I expect to be learning a lot of practical C++ skills and become fluent and comfortable in the language.

What’s your pick-of-the-week or tip-of-the-week?

My pick-of-the-week is a recently uploaded lightning talk from Y Combinator President Sam Altman. If you’re not familiar, Y Combinator is the world’s foremost startup incubator that has produced the likes of Dropbox and Airbnb. In this talk, Altman distills many of the lessons of Y Combinator into a quick 20-minute talk on what makes startups successful. Here are some key unexpected but important takeaways:

  • A lot of times it’s easier to start a “Hard Startup” than an “Easy One” because the brightest talent is highly motivated by challenging work. And you need great people to form a great company.
  • Good startups seek a monopolistic advantage where it’s difficult for competitors to compete (think Facebook). The best businesses try to convince you that they don’t have one (when they clearly do).
  • Silicon Valley is wired to fund and promote startups that are huge if it works (but will most likely fail).

You can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lJKucu6HJc

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