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There is a weird disparity between the programmers I read on the internet and the programming students I know in real life. The programmers I read on the inter

There is a weird disparity between the programmers I read on the internet and the programming students I know in real life. The programmers I read on the internet are self-taught, have side projects, and are intimidating. The programming students I know in real life are college-taught, generally don't have side projects, and aren't intimidating. I think I belong to the second group more than the first. Should I switch to a different major? Or is there a place in the world for programmers who aren't hackers? As a third option, someone might have some magical "how to become a hacker" advice that I haven't already read.

unalone 18y ago
I don't quite know what you mean by hacker - do you just mean you haven't worked on stuff on the side? As for intimidating - I don't know if I've ever met a hacker in real life that really seemed intimidating. A lot of people develop a sort of persona online, either because they think they're cool or because they're so flooded with work that they simply don't have time to talk to every single person they meet. So the more that you do, the more mail you get from people, and the harder it is to respond to them, and the more it seems like you're exclusive and therefore intimidating. Don't switch majors because of other people. Switch if you don't like what you're doing. Do you really like programming, exploring code or at the very least making that code work? If so, there's bound to be a place for you. As for "becoming" a hacker: again, try not to look at other people. The path to people having ideas and making projects is always a bit askew and twisted. If you ever want a side project, go ahead and start one. Get your hands dirty. The more you do, the wiser you get. But don't feel like it's a necessity. Also remember that lots of college students are just learning to code. The self-taught kids have a few years' advantage in a lot of situations. That doesn't necessarily make them better (though a lot more of them have an aptitude for the subject matter). It's certainly possible to get into programming late in your career and still turn it into something meaningful.
- tigerthink 18y ago
  By "hacker" I mean someone who has the compulsive curiosity for programming that some of you seem to have. And by "intimidating" I mean they seem like they might be much better programmers than me. (Hence virtual experience is just as good an indicator as real-world experience.)
  - unalone 18y ago
    Not everybody here is a compulsive programmer. I'm not a particularly good programmer myself: my focus is more on designing and building things that don't exist already. That's the great thing about the industry: it's so huge that you can focus on one of any number of things and still find success at what you do.

unalone 18y ago

I don't quite know what you mean by hacker - do you just mean you haven't worked on stuff on the side? As for intimidating - I don't know if I've ever met a hacker in real life that really seemed intimidating. A lot of people develop a sort of persona online, either because they think they're cool or because they're so flooded with work that they simply don't have time to talk to every single person they meet. So the more that you do, the more mail you get from people, and the harder it is to respond to them, and the more it seems like you're exclusive and therefore intimidating. Don't switch majors because of other people. Switch if you don't like what you're doing. Do you really like programming, exploring code or at the very least making that code work? If so, there's bound to be a place for you. As for "becoming" a hacker: again, try not to look at other people. The path to people having ideas and making projects is always a bit askew and twisted. If you ever want a side project, go ahead and start one. Get your hands dirty. The more you do, the wiser you get. But don't feel like it's a necessity. Also remember that lots of college students are just learning to code. The self-taught kids have a few years' advantage in a lot of situations. That doesn't necessarily make them better (though a lot more of them have an aptitude for the subject matter). It's certainly possible to get into programming late in your career and still turn it into something meaningful.

tigerthink 18y ago
By "hacker" I mean someone who has the compulsive curiosity for programming that some of you seem to have. And by "intimidating" I mean they seem like they might be much better programmers than me. (Hence virtual experience is just as good an indicator as real-world experience.)
- unalone 18y ago
  Not everybody here is a compulsive programmer. I'm not a particularly good programmer myself: my focus is more on designing and building things that don't exist already. That's the great thing about the industry: it's so huge that you can focus on one of any number of things and still find success at what you do.