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One thing I found useful as a self-taught programmer was getting outside of the dominant programming paradigms. Though I'd like to disassociate myself with the
by alexwestholm 16y ago
One thing I found useful as a self-taught programmer was getting outside of the dominant programming paradigms. Though I'd like to disassociate myself with the over-the-top PG fanboyism that sometimes goes on here, I must admit that his lisp books were a great help in breaking out of the imperative and OO worlds, and were a major influence on me at an early stage.
Even better, PG has now made On Lisp available for free: http://www.paulgraham.com/onlisp.html http://www.paulgraham.com/onlisp.html.
- jerf 16y agoI'm not sure the SICP is for everyone, but that's exactly why I recommend it to self-taught programmers and the occasional "I'm a web jockey but I'd like to learn to be a real programmer" post. If you're excessively steeped in the practical side, it focuses like a laser beam on the bits of education you've missed out on, and in a shocking twist of fate, will teach you eminently practical skills as well. I'd rather hire web jockey + "I worked all the way through the SICP" than a guy with just a degree. (I hate it when people say they learned nothing from schooling, computer science theory is dripping with practical usefulness. Unless you're just so damned brilliant you came up with compiler theory and basic AI and type theory and all kinds of other stuff all on your own. Which I don't believe.)