Dude, you're lucky. I took me 10 years post college to figure out what I'm truly passionate about. If you don't take the plunge now you'll end up leaving a perf

Dude, you're lucky. I took me 10 years post college to figure out what I'm truly passionate about. If you don't take the plunge now you'll end up leaving a perfectly good career at 31 to do it anyway (most likely after reading a pg essay like myself). 1. Hackers learn by doing. If you enjoy tackling problems you're 3/4 of the way there. If you have ideas, you're 3/4 of the way there. Combining those two will fill in the other blanks for you. What language you use would depend on the problem space. When you pick a problem, you could always poll here for suggestions. 2. Don't worry if they're better or worse than you, just seek out people who love doing it. They'll eclipse everyone else in short order anyway. My only add on advice is I would assume you have more college options than what you've stated. If you do like programming, you really can't go wrong at this point in history with a degree in it. I would look for less time consuming options. Seriously, start your new life today. Pick a problem and start hacking away at it. Start hacking away at college options and start seeking out hacker meetups (you'll have plenty of options in NY). Above all, enjoy it. Good luck.