Learn by Programming or Learn Programming to Program?

[externalreality]

When I was younger I learned to program because I wanted to write a program. I never wanted to "Learn C" I just kept on reading chapters of K&R so that I could write my program (Just a small game). Now, decades later, I just finished reading "The Rust Programming Language" with no real desire to write a program -- I just wanted to read the book. Great language but I have this sort of empty feeling -- kind of like "What now". I wonder how many people suffer from this. I'll likely will never get paid to write Rust, and given I find programming to be the the least lucrative way to put my tech skills to use, I guess I'll likely never get to use Rust. How many people learn languages that they will never get to use?

[simonblack]

Everybody only really learns by 'doing'.

They might think they know how to program in C (ferinstance), but they will only be able to prove they truly know how by producing a non-trivial program.

Perhaps rewrite one of your old programs in your new language. It's a method that's worked for me many times.

[logari]

Your concern is well justified. The problem with a great majority of the myriad tech books written by "gurus" is that they pile up some code together and say, to do this, you this, and to do that you do that. Then they move on to the next disparate, incoherent, disconnected bit of code, as if to get it out AQAP and then leave you holding the book and asking, "so?" Or "so what?". To my mind, such parasitic behavior is mercenary and unethical. Moreover, some of these authors do not even teach the complete stuff, or make mistakes, or write about the 300 parts leaving our random 30 or 50 parts that would eliminate confusion or potential errors.

This empty feeling you have is not because you dont want to program--to program is an innate human need--but because you have "learned" (after Bandura) to have no "real desire to program". Also the same applies to why you see programming as a "lucrative way" to use your tech skills.

On the contrary, it is because of bad teachers and incomplete books that you see programming only as a means to a end, that end being financial for you. The moment you see programming as an end itself, not only the financial aspect will take care of itself, but you will genuinely become happy.

Someone said, and I forgot who, that computer science is a telescope to complexity. This sentence is very powerful. The more you extend your mind, the better the total outlook you will have on all aspects of your life. With that, you will realize that you need to other tools (like a telescope) to reach other domains (like CS) and this will make you wiser.

I learned German for no reason at all, and at the time I had a "what now" moment, but then I could watch German TV programs on ARD.De and learned so many interesting and new things unavailable to the non-German world. The same applies to Rust or anything else that is inherently useful.

[el_dev_hell]

> given I find programming to be the the least lucrative way to put my tech skills to use

Sorry to derail the thread, but can I ask what the other ways to implement your tech skills would be? Genuinely interested.