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> Those of us who learned in high school and college have the passion for programming that drives us to succeed. Not everyone has that passion. I feel like thi

by dvdhnt 10y ago

> Those of us who learned in high school and college have the passion for programming that drives us to succeed. Not everyone has that passion. I feel like this implies that those of us who learned programming outside of a traditional classroom are not "passionate". If so, that's just not true. Almost every programmer I speak with who has a CS degree or who took at least one class in college has told me they both did not enjoy the structure of their courses and learned the skills they actually use after college. My experience in the few courses I did take on programming, they're just not structured very well and are unfortunately tied to a course catalog or curriculum. Your point on stress, or rather failure, is more poignant. I think that it comes down to an individual's ability to accept incremental victories and to think critically, or problem solve as it's often called. Also, I feel like a programmer's ability to read documentation and examples and project them onto his/her own software can make or break a career.

orionblastar 10y ago
I think I made a typo or something. I didn't mean to imply that people learning programming outside of the classroom don't have a passion for it. I taught myself before I went to high school with a Commodore 64 and developed a passion for programming and got into programming by switching to a better high school that focused on math and science. Without that passion, programming kind of sucks. When I programmed it was like an art form and a science all in one. I would try to solve a problem with my program, make mistakes, get errors, get the wrong results, and had to keep editing, deleting, and rewriting code until I got it to do what it is supposed to do. I worked with people who didn't go to college and had no degree and had a passion for learning and read books to get good at programming. Without that passion, it is kind of hard to stick to keep trying until you make a program that does what you want it to do. People give up sometimes and all they need is a little help with another set of eyes looking over their code. I had a good college and good professors who encouraged me to keep learning and getting better and develop that passion. Other colleges didn't have that as sometimes the professors didn't know enough about the language to write a program or help students. I once had to help my friend's mother at a college because nobody at that college could help her learn how to debug her Visual Basic programs I spent a few hours in their computer lab and helped her debug like 10 different programs. I've also seen MOOCs where they try to tell students to use an integer to store PI. const int pi = 3.14159 Instead of using math.pi or something else. The constant pi is an integer so it equals 3. I've seen all sorts of stuff.
- dvdhnt 10y ago
  Right on, I appreciate the clarification. Ah, honestly, I envy that time you had before the internet/javascript/SPAs/etc became so ubiquitous. I bet it was loads of fun figuring it all out and hacking your way to a solution? You're right, programming really is a drag. I know it's different, but just like with athletes and training versus playing, writers toiling away on manuscripts and outlines, and someone like my father, a construction worker, who labored on bits and pieces of a project before ever realizing the satisfaction of a completed project; you have to endure the suck and find satisfaction in it. SMALL VICTORIES. Your story reminds me of the passages on Bill Gates in Malcolm Gladwell's The Outliers that talked about Gates teaching himself programming and spending time in the school's library to use the one computer, eventually consulting at an extremely young age.

by dvdhnt 10y ago

orionblastar 10y ago

I think I made a typo or something. I didn't mean to imply that people learning programming outside of the classroom don't have a passion for it. I taught myself before I went to high school with a Commodore 64 and developed a passion for programming and got into programming by switching to a better high school that focused on math and science. Without that passion, programming kind of sucks. When I programmed it was like an art form and a science all in one. I would try to solve a problem with my program, make mistakes, get errors, get the wrong results, and had to keep editing, deleting, and rewriting code until I got it to do what it is supposed to do. I worked with people who didn't go to college and had no degree and had a passion for learning and read books to get good at programming. Without that passion, it is kind of hard to stick to keep trying until you make a program that does what you want it to do. People give up sometimes and all they need is a little help with another set of eyes looking over their code. I had a good college and good professors who encouraged me to keep learning and getting better and develop that passion. Other colleges didn't have that as sometimes the professors didn't know enough about the language to write a program or help students. I once had to help my friend's mother at a college because nobody at that college could help her learn how to debug her Visual Basic programs I spent a few hours in their computer lab and helped her debug like 10 different programs. I've also seen MOOCs where they try to tell students to use an integer to store PI. const int pi = 3.14159 Instead of using math.pi or something else. The constant pi is an integer so it equals 3. I've seen all sorts of stuff.

dvdhnt 10y ago
Right on, I appreciate the clarification. Ah, honestly, I envy that time you had before the internet/javascript/SPAs/etc became so ubiquitous. I bet it was loads of fun figuring it all out and hacking your way to a solution? You're right, programming really is a drag. I know it's different, but just like with athletes and training versus playing, writers toiling away on manuscripts and outlines, and someone like my father, a construction worker, who labored on bits and pieces of a project before ever realizing the satisfaction of a completed project; you have to endure the suck and find satisfaction in it. SMALL VICTORIES. Your story reminds me of the passages on Bill Gates in Malcolm Gladwell's The Outliers that talked about Gates teaching himself programming and spending time in the school's library to use the one computer, eventually consulting at an extremely young age.