I couldn't agree more with this article. I wrote a post about my personal path to becoming a programmer, and about the most specific I got about what I actually

I couldn't agree more with this article. I wrote a post about my personal path to becoming a programmer, and about the most specific I got about what I actually programmed was "stuff I thought was interesting." The most specific advice I gave was "program" and "work hard." The comments I got both here and on the article made it clear that people wanted specific tutorials and sample projects they could replicate. This misses the point entirely. The way to become anything -- at least a good anything -- is to hard work and repetition. I can't tell you what to program. I can't give you sample projects based on what I did because why should you care enough about some dumb thing I made to extract meaningful lessons from it? Find something you think is neat or cool to make and make it. When it comes to sports, or tradecrafts like carpentry/masonry etc., singing, painting, etc., it's understood the only way to become a professional is to bust your ass. It's the same way with anything in the world. There is no magic bullet. There's no wand you can wave or wish you can make. You just have to work. The number of people for whom this is a completely foreign concept is surprisingly large.