Good one-on-one teachers may not be available to everyone, true, but they can make a huge difference. Here's a personal anecdote. My first exposure to programm

Good one-on-one teachers may not be available to everyone, true, but they can make a huge difference. Here's a personal anecdote. My first exposure to programming was back in 2005. I was living in Tokyo and agreed to do a "language exchange" with a Japanese friend: I would help him with English, he would teach me Ruby. And so we began. We shared our frustrations; we coached each other through the rough spots; we offered up nuance and context for everything. He gave me the gift of instance_eval long before I could have figured it out on my own. I gave him the confidence to hit on foreign girls. Win-win. The author is right to suggest new programmers should just dive in, without waiting to find the perfect teacher. That's fine. Do, don't wait. But if you do get the chance to study under someone's wing, take it!