|
The amazing and terrible thing about programming is that you can learn enough about it without physical contact with another human being. I suspect that content about programming on the web shows a huge bias towards being technology based -- if you considered all the possible topics and ideas in the world and their popularity, the ratio of popularity-on-the-internet to popularity-IRL is probably highest with technology and programming. Well, you'd have to exclude porn and other taboo topics for which the anonymity aspect of the internet, rather than information sharing aspect, causes their ratio to explode. That was a bit of a tangent. My original thought was that there are several thousand lifetimes worth of programming knowledge online, and it's getting more and more organized by the minute. Google and StackOverflow will be your best friends. It may take you some time to learn how to ask the question, but beyond that you should be able to find solutions to any problem that you run up against. With this in mind, it's important that you actively apply that knowledge. Learning is one thing, doing is quite another. I've often times postulated to myself that there's probably some optimal ratio of studying vs. doing, in all things. Then, I realize there's more to it than that -- there's the context switching. If you spend 5 years learning, then 5 years doing, you'll never learn as much as if you spend 1 day learning and 1 day doing for 10 years straight. Learning and doing feed off of each other. So, learn and do. Find something you really want to work on, and try to build it. When you run up against a wall, which you most definitely will, it's time to learn. Once you're ready to give it a shot, do it. When things start getting too complicated, you're probably doing it wrong. Start over, make things "cleaner" (this becomes a 6th sense after awhile), and you'll find yourself naturally creating patterns that you become comfortable with. Like any other skill, it's really a pleasure to see your abilities progress. Have fun. |