[glesperance]

12 years old ; Fascinated by computer viruses, and hacking :)

But nowadays, what I really think amazed be, and still does, is the way we are able to go from a thought to its implementation through the use of a programming languages in about no time.

Think of any other field other than software engineer where you can go from hypothesis to modelling and then testing in about a few hours or days ? There ain't many. (On a side note that's why its becoming more and more prevalent to use programming to model and study real world situation ; e.g. economics, standing-ovations, etc ).

[jespi88]

How did you get into it? Read any books? Asked someone?

I agree that the field is fascinating and I am having a hard time focusing on my classes as a side effect.

I've read a lot of blogs that directed me towards certain books and tutorials. However, I'm curious about how people start from 0.

[glesperance]

1- Choose a goal/project

Try to think short term here since you probably won't be full time on that, and so it won't replace your job in the short term -- i.e. get a goal that is both easy and fun to you

2- Choose a prog lang

Depending on what u want to do in the future with your skills, you'll choose another language.

For that, either ask around or here in HN I guess.

3- Google [language] tutorial

4- then Google [language] [goal/project] tutorial

glhf !

[jcr]

It's never about blogs or books or classes.

Therein lies the reason why you haven't gotten it yet...

If I told you I started in the mid 70's at the age of 8 with a teletype on acoustic couplers, it would only be a matter of time until someone older than me came along to tell us how I had it easy.

I can't speak for anyone but myself, but my drive has always been the same; I am absolutely fascinated by the prospect of making a machine do what I want. I'm just totally enamored with the very idea of it, and I always have been.

The current nudge could be wanting to build something, or wanting to fix something, or wanting to change something, or even just messing around to see if it explodes. The current nudge might be a friend in need, or a boss looking for results. It doesn't matter. The current nudge could be anything since the underlying fascination is always the real motivation.

Most all people sit around being annoyed by their software and hardware because it is beyond their control, or more accurately, they let it be beyond their control. You can see their frustration in the endless drivel of rants on the Internet. The rants fix nothing. The only way to ever solve the problem is taking control and making the machine do what you want it to do.

Today I finally figured out how to prevent firefox from loading CSS by default, along with adding key bindings to selectively load parts of CSS (in page style, same-host style files, 3rd-party style files, ...) when they are absolutely necessary. Some people thing CSS is a good idea and should always be forced on by default, but others disagree. Those opinions don't matter. What matters is I made the machine do what I want to meet my own needs. It was a fun challenge.

Many people would say I wasted my time... --They don't get it.

Many people would take offense, yes, seriously. By removing all CSS I basically just said all the UX/UI "designer" weenies are useless. I essentially deleted all of their "hard work" by making the machine do what I want rather than letting it do what they want.

When one is unable to make a machine do what one wants, the problem is not the machine, instead, the real problem is the person. Yes, the person operating the machine is ALWAYS at fault for the machine not doing exactly what the person wants.

I know exactly who is to blame when a machine is unable to do what I want it to do.

Do you?