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Self-teaching programmer here. Extensive IT background, and have had a CS class or two in public "B School" type university. After Codecademy, Learn x the hard

Self-teaching programmer here. Extensive IT background, and have had a CS class or two in public "B School" type university. After Codecademy, Learn x the hard way a little bit, and even command line hacking with REPL's I have been able to conquer my fear of the abstraction layer. And although I am able to look at programs that exist and I use from a programmer's mindset, I still can not understand how to model my ideas and build them out. I think with a better understanding of core CS concepts and a thorough mental whipping I will be in a better shape. My plan is to get through: 1. SICP/SICP Python 2. {Insert famous Data Structures/ Algorithms book here} 3.Find some open source project on Github of what I want to do, and extend it or even better refactor it. From there I will be ready to feel more like a programmer. Cause I really breeze through these tutorials, but seem lost thereafter. I am not seeking prodigy status, but I know that I can become a very formidable programmer sooner or later.

kbenson 14y ago
Don't forget to intersperse that with random little projects that you start because you enjoy or want to fix something that bothers you. IMHO the programmer mindset has less to do with knowing exactly how to fix a problem than with "Hey, I bet I can fix that, and it probably wouldn't even be too hard!" (which are also famous last words, but you can ignore that :)
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jisaacstone 14y ago
I recommend The Little Schemer.
viame 14y ago
This is how I do it. I just started working with python about 3-4 weeks ago. No experience other than html, css3 and graphic design. So I started doing some online classes but they were so boring and simple that I finished them within a day or two. I actually started doing Udacity's CS class when they teach you how to design a search engine, however half way through I realized that this can be done twice as faster with tools that already exist. From there I read some Django docs, installed it but django was the most confusing framework to me (not really sure why, just didn't like it) I stumbled upon Flask and I fell in love. Without any knowledge of how to program and how things work I simply started coding, working with db (postgres). Within a week or so I designed a small blogging application that lets you register users, each user can upload photos, create docs and delete them. I try to code very neatly, and comment on everything. There are a couple of solutions for everything so if I find a better solution I comment out the first one and apply another one. PS. Don't code for 12h straight. Go out. If I don't know something, I seek for direction, not an answer. I also walk away from my comp and think about a solution, and these tend to be very easy and can be done with a few lines of code. I guess I use my creativity to solve code problems. Also write everything in small chunks and reuse.
- deleted 14y ago
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- croyd 14y ago
  "I actually started doing Udacity's CS class when they teach you how to design a search engine, however half way through I realized that this can be done twice as faster with tools that already exist." I may be misinterpreting your claim, but they're not trying to teach you how to quickly build a search engine. They're introducing fundamental concepts of computer science and showing their applications via a search engine.

kbenson 14y ago

Don't forget to intersperse that with random little projects that you start because you enjoy or want to fix something that bothers you. IMHO the programmer mindset has less to do with knowing exactly how to fix a problem than with "Hey, I bet I can fix that, and it probably wouldn't even be too hard!" (which are also famous last words, but you can ignore that :)

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jisaacstone 14y ago

I recommend The Little Schemer.

viame 14y ago

This is how I do it. I just started working with python about 3-4 weeks ago. No experience other than html, css3 and graphic design. So I started doing some online classes but they were so boring and simple that I finished them within a day or two. I actually started doing Udacity's CS class when they teach you how to design a search engine, however half way through I realized that this can be done twice as faster with tools that already exist. From there I read some Django docs, installed it but django was the most confusing framework to me (not really sure why, just didn't like it) I stumbled upon Flask and I fell in love. Without any knowledge of how to program and how things work I simply started coding, working with db (postgres). Within a week or so I designed a small blogging application that lets you register users, each user can upload photos, create docs and delete them. I try to code very neatly, and comment on everything. There are a couple of solutions for everything so if I find a better solution I comment out the first one and apply another one. PS. Don't code for 12h straight. Go out. If I don't know something, I seek for direction, not an answer. I also walk away from my comp and think about a solution, and these tend to be very easy and can be done with a few lines of code. I guess I use my creativity to solve code problems. Also write everything in small chunks and reuse.

deleted 14y ago
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croyd 14y ago
"I actually started doing Udacity's CS class when they teach you how to design a search engine, however half way through I realized that this can be done twice as faster with tools that already exist." I may be misinterpreting your claim, but they're not trying to teach you how to quickly build a search engine. They're introducing fundamental concepts of computer science and showing their applications via a search engine.