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> It is easy to say in retrospect that it was worth spending 10 years of learning something. But it is hard to make such commitment in advance (especially as mo

> It is easy to say in retrospect that it was worth spending 10 years of learning something. But it is hard to make such commitment in advance (especially as most of such commitments are misses, by opportunity cost). I don't think Peter implies to stay jobless, till you clock 10,000 hours on programming. Many people who don't program, see it as lucrative opportunity to start making six-figures a month, and pick one of those books mentioned in the article. After completing few examples, they acquire a false notion, how easy it is. "Tell me any technology and I'll learn it in a week." said one guy I was interviewing but when they get to work on something tangible, they get a cold feet. The article simply speaks about foolishness of expecting to learn something within few weeks and get on a job, quickly. By no means, they should just learn and get a job only when they are ready, but realizing that nothing would ever be enough and constantly trying to level up, is essential to become really good at programming.

rdudek 12y ago
Yet, the author fails to mention marketing invovled behind this. Any fool can write a book, but it does take effort to sell it. Such titles like "Teach Yourself X in 21 days" are designed to give the user a small taste of what's involved AND to sell the damn book. Most of these books state right in the beginning that you have to constantly work at it to fully learn the material. So are these books worthless? Absolutely not. They offer the user a basic foundation to start learning and work up from there. The user can from there find communities and more advanced books to continue to learn. For me personally, these books gave me a foundation to continue to learn. But honestly, the best way I learned was actually coming up with small projects that I personally wanted to do.
stared 12y ago
Well, there is a good reason not to call oneself "C++ programmer" after spending 24h with it. Being convinced that something is easy and using it is a wonderful thing (they are way too many people who are scared to program and miss the opportunity). Plus, one of the best strategies for learning programming is to go to a point where someone can pay (even if for a very junior position) and continue learning.

rdudek 12y ago

Yet, the author fails to mention marketing invovled behind this. Any fool can write a book, but it does take effort to sell it. Such titles like "Teach Yourself X in 21 days" are designed to give the user a small taste of what's involved AND to sell the damn book. Most of these books state right in the beginning that you have to constantly work at it to fully learn the material. So are these books worthless? Absolutely not. They offer the user a basic foundation to start learning and work up from there. The user can from there find communities and more advanced books to continue to learn. For me personally, these books gave me a foundation to continue to learn. But honestly, the best way I learned was actually coming up with small projects that I personally wanted to do.

stared 12y ago

Well, there is a good reason not to call oneself "C++ programmer" after spending 24h with it. Being convinced that something is easy and using it is a wonderful thing (they are way too many people who are scared to program and miss the opportunity). Plus, one of the best strategies for learning programming is to go to a point where someone can pay (even if for a very junior position) and continue learning.