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This doesn't fit my experience. I mean, yes, this was me. I came in knowing most/all of this. I knew six (or more?) programming languages, had at least played

This doesn't fit my experience. I mean, yes, this was me. I came in knowing most/all of this. I knew six (or more?) programming languages, had at least played with CVS/SVN, had installed Linux (read: fought with the Linux bootloader to get my AMD CPU to boot without crashing), had dipped my toe in a few open source communities. But I was a tutor in college and I interacted with a bunch of people who didn't come in with any of this experience. Many of those people struggled, but I also know a bunch of people who came into CS knowing nothing, loved it, and went from zero-to-sixty faster than even the people who came in knowing a lot. I'm still not sure I can identify what the ingredient was, but experience alone is not enough to explain it.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
matwood 4y ago
I went to college in the late 90s. Didn't even own a computer until I was a freshman (used my loan money to buy one). Math and science had always been my subjects, so I started college pre-med. But, this new computer I just bought kept sucking me in. I'd stay up all night reading how to make it faster, learn all the tricks, and finally make it do what I wanted through programming. Next semester I took a programming class just to see how it went, then dropped everything, and switched majors. I got a part time job writing custom software for local companies as a sophomore/junior (late 90s dotcom was just ramping), and I guess it has all worked out ok.