

I quit my 100k a year job to learn programming from scratch. Ask me anything.  - fttechfounder
http://anyasq.com/47-i-quit-my-100k-a-year-job-to-learn-programming-from-scratch

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theblueadept111
Hi, I'm a novice in your field. I've read about your field in the popular
media, and have romantic notions about becoming extremely successful in your
field, even though I have 8 years less experience than even a recent graduate.
Let me tell you some cliche ideas I've summarized from reading blogs, even
though you probably have decades or more experience than I do. Ok, now go
ahead and ask me ANYTHING. Anything at all!

~~~
fttechfounder
Haha, you never know what kind of response you'll get by putting something on
the internet!

Asking me about computer programming is going to be pretty silly. But if
you're thinking about learning to code and want to understand what it's like
to learn a new skill, I can probably share some insights.

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aristus
What if I don't have a Twitter account?

~~~
fttechfounder
No idea although I imagine it's somewhere on the AnyAsq road map. I've added
the question here: <http://anyasq.com/7-im-building-anyasq-right-now>

If there's something specific you would like to ask me, feel free to ask it
here.

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ttran08
How long have you been learning to code and how far along are you? I'm
seriously considering learning to code myself.

~~~
fttechfounder
I'm working through David Malan's "CS50: Intro to Computer Science" course at
Harvard (<http://cs50.tv/2010/fall/>) and also Chris Pine's 'Learn to Program
(<http://pine.fm/LearnToProgram/>).

As a complete beginner, I've found both to be very accessible, although the
CS50 course is much more rigorous and much more of a pain since it's mostly
taught in C99. While I can zip through chapters in Chris Pine's book, which
teaches Ruby, I spend days working through each of the CS50 problem sets.

At the beginning, the biggest surprise was how hard it was. It sounds obvious,
but programming is about thinking like a machine. If you're like most normal
people, this is going to be hard because you just don't naturally think like a
machine!

After a while, the framework of approaching a problem becomes more second
nature, but it's still hard, especially if you're learning by yourself. I
remember showing off what I thought was a completed program to my girlfriend.
She played with it for about 5 seconds before breaking it by putting some
input I hadn't planned for.

If I started again, I would have enrolled in a community college for physical
course just so I could have peers check my work and people to talk to when I
hit a wall. I quit my job to learn to code so I'm fairly motivated, but even
then, working by yourself has a way of a eating that away. I'm moving to New
York City next month and the first thing I'm going to do is get plugged in.

