If there's any programming-adjacent technology that is practically guaranteed to make you want to pull your hair out, it's CSS :-) I don't find web dev appealin

If there's any programming-adjacent technology that is practically guaranteed to make you want to pull your hair out, it's CSS :-) I don't find web dev appealing in general either, so lots of sympathies there. It's nice that you've tried Java and computational stuff and found those more appealing. Re: CS50, my understanding is that while the course is well-structured, they do start with C, which is better suited for people who really like learning from the "bottom up", rather than those who learn better "top-down". You might be in the latter group. If all that sounds about accurate, it's probably better to focus on courses that start with higher-level technologies like Python, C#, or Java in the beginning (but stay away from web dev). Python is the most likely to feel "natural", so that's what I recommend to people just starting out. You could check out Berkeley's CS 61A for example (though I think MIT/Harvard have Python-based courses too). If you stayed on Windows, I'd recommend Visual Studio 2019 (not to be confused with Visual Studio Code), since it has everything well-integrated together. But courses focus on UNIX-based tools, so you'd indeed want a Mac if you're following anything that uses the terminal. And if iOS app development is your goal then you definitely don't want to go with Windows, though I don't have any experience with that so I can't give you pointers (hah) there. CS in general isn't about just coding though; the algorithms and data structures are extremely important, and they aren't necessarily easy to pick up, so that's normal. And self-guided courses in general definitely need a lot of motivation, and that's easier said than done for most people, so don't feel like it's just you. You probably want to pick something where you have a good dose of interest & curiosity to drive yourself instead of just relying on the course, regardless of what you're doing. Not sure how helpful this is but best of luck trying it with a Mac!