Shiam Code

Why Shiam Code (my MAIN youtube channel)?

I am going to try and explain my thought process for Why Shiam Code? (I use programming as a catch-all term for computer science, robotics, artificial intelligence etc.)

The term opportunity cost generally means the cost of the next best opportunity. If I have £50 and I can buy a game for £50, or an industry recognised cyber security certificate for £50, I have to make a choice. (Those were the best examples that came to mind). There are so many opportunity costs in the world and usually there are hundreds of choices I can make.

I think time is the biggest factor here, time spent gaming could be time spent programming, time spent programming could be time spent on YouTube.

Time is so variable and often it is very hard to guarantee outcomes, so it’s hard to be 100% sure with things I can make my best guesses. 

Life is a lot more complex than the example given but I feel like we have the foundations to start. 

When it comes to technical skills such as maths in the UK education system, it is recommended that from ages 16-18 (A-level in the UK) you need to put in about 700 hours to get top marks, for university usually ages 18-21 you need to put in 1200 hours a year to get top marks.

I think this example for technical skills is generally correct. I need to put in some hours, and there is usually an amount. If somebody came to me and could say I am here at point X and I want to get to point Y, how do I get here? If I know the area well I can advise them.

I will give you a really well defined clear example, 

I didn’t do A-level maths; in fact I dropped maths but I have a master’s in AI.  I learned what I needed to do when somebody said to me I am 16 (the age you finish mandatory schooling in the UK) . I want to go to a Russell group university (think Russel group is top 20) to study maths. What do I need to do?

There is college, apprenticeship, A-levels and IB. When I did it I think we did about 4 subjects, if you want a chance to get to a top 20 uni, you would need a minimum of 3 B grades. Most likely you will pick Maths, Further Maths, a science or science then Economics or Computer Science (you could pick something different but of the like hundred of thousands of people studying it will probably be [ Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Comp Sci]. I would say across the 2-year period for each week you want to find about 3 hours a day after school to study. If you do this and follow the curriculum you will have the necessary technical skill tobe where you want to be.

Now life isn’t a well defined problem it is a lot messier than that but I wanted to stress the acquisition of technical skill takes time. 

Starting when I am now 30 (just finished my masters in AI), I think concurrently doing youtube and programming is a good choice rather than all in on programming. I have seen several youtubers make money online , create connections they later use. I have realised that there is an area beyond technical that matters. The clear evidence is if pure technical skill alone correlated with money then every PhD would be a millionaire, and that is not the case, still I don’t think the more technically skilled you are the better you do on average.

Now many of these areas aren’t so well defined, for example I think YouTube and its component parts have some technical skill involved, i.e learning, some basic thumbnail design, some story telling to name a few, but I wouldn’t be able to say if you spend 10,000 hours on youtube you can be guaranteed to do well, you will do better for sure but to what degree I don’t know. 

I think I can add YouTube as a supplement to my programming that can serve as a portfolio and brand, and a funnel (not a fan of the word for this it feels very business-like), while not taking away from the level I can reach in programming. So I am not going to do 100% programming, I will do 80% programming and 20% youtube. That’s the thought process.

I want to build up from small projects like chess,solitaire and Su-Do-Ku to playing full games with AI and robotics projects. Think  stuff similar to Code Bullet and Micheal Reeves.