[kosherbeefcake]

After the Arduino had come out, and amateur projects were coming out from that, I visited a small hobby electronics store, looking to gather some information, buy some starter gear, and get into the hobby.

I chatted with the sales clerk, who was on the younger side, that I should go back to school for electrical engineering, because that's the only way I'd learn the hobby. I bought an Arduino afterwards, but never used it. That encounter effectively killed it for me.

[qxamak]

Not only was that sales clerk bad at his job (discouraging you from pursuing something that you're already interested in), but he was also very wrong.

I'm an electrical engineer who develops hardware similar to the Arduino for a living. I'm still constantly amazed by the things my friends, mostly artists and web designers, make using Arduinos and Raspberry Pis. I remember buying one of the first Arduinos and thinking, "Why did I even go to school? They've made everything so much easier." My friends still ask me questions and help them troubleshoot things; but for the most part, there are tutorials and forums that often provide more information that I can. Sparkfun and Adafruit have a lot of great beginner level tutorials, but they also have some really complex and challenging projects too.