I don't program (aside from SAS/R statistical programming and LaTeX). I'm planning on learning how. I have the feeling that there is a lot of potential good th

I don't program (aside from SAS/R statistical programming and LaTeX). I'm planning on learning how. I have the feeling that there is a lot of potential good that an epidemiology-oriented hacker could do. Problem is, I have no direct external pressure to motivate learning, and no direction on what to learn. Reading Hacker News is a way of gaining both motivation and direction.