

How I Learned to Program in 23 Years - jeffpersonified
http://jeffmatthewsmith.tumblr.com

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fein
I've read the article about 4 times now, and I still have no idea what the
point of the title was.

You didn't learn to program in 23 years or 10 weeks. I'm an employed CS grad,
and I still don't "know" how to program. Don't mistake this as an "I'm a
graduate that can't code" statement, but instead "You (should)never stop
learning, and therefore can never concretely _know_ how to program".

Likewise, if you know you like to code, then why didn't you start already? Is
this just supposed to be a "look at me, I'm in dev bootcamp for ruby!"
attention call? I'm confused.

~~~
jeffpersonified
That's fair.

The title (and I did hesitate on using it) grabs attention -- enough for you
to be reading the article.

I stuck with it largely because I think the decision to learn to program is a
culmination of my journey over the past 23 years.

And, I have actually learned to program over the last 3 months. Maybe I should
have stated that in the article. I'm currently doing freelance front-end
development.

~~~
joelrunyon
I think a better way to have phrased this train of thought would be:

"How It Took Me 23 Years To Learn To Code"

~~~
jeffpersonified
Better. Taking the advice. Thanks.

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malandrew
When I clicked on the linkbait title I expected an article by someone who has
been programming for 23 years to share their wisdom. If that's what you
expected and were disappointed by the content, I can't offer an alternative
for 23 years, but I can offer 10: Norvig's "Teach Yourself to Program in 10
Years" <http://norvig.com/21-days.html>

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wmat
"building beautiful, meaningful things. Things that people want."

Just because people want what you've built does not necessarily make it
meaningful. Meaning is a very subjective, personal thing, based on your core
values. What person x finds meaningful and is willing to pay for, person y may
think is meaningless. So ask yourself whether you want to build something
meaningful to you, based on your core values or do you just want to build the
next hot game/app/whatever, and get rich. There's nothing wrong with the
latter, but be honest with yourself.

~~~
bradleyland
> So ask yourself whether you want to build something meaningful to you, based
> on your core values or do you just want to build the next hot
> game/app/whatever, and get rich. There's nothing wrong with the latter, but
> be honest with yourself.

I didn't read anything in that piece to justify such cynicism and
condescension. The author's motivations seem to be anything but financial. It
sounds to me like he's after inspiration on a more personal level.

Don't you think you're being a bit too meta-critical? That looks like a pretty
straight forward list to me. The author wants to build things that are:

* Beautiful

* Meaningful (to him at least)

* Desired

I'll grant you that desirable does not always make something meaningful, and
vice versa, but what does that have to do with anything? How is it -- in any
way -- disingenuous to _want_ to build meaningful things that are also
desirable?

Hell, even if he's dead wrong about what's really "meaningful" to a
significant population of people, it doesn't strike me as some fallacious
goal. It seems like genuine good will.

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GFKjunior
Have you graduated from a university?

