[Miller450]

Over the course of the past few months, my friend Dan (http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=theli0nheart) and I have been talking about launching a website that would help aspiring programmers learn how to code. There are a ton of resources out there already, but it’s so confusing to a newbie that it’s almost impossible to make a solid start without someone walking you through the process.

Dan's an experienced hacker. I'm not, and during the process of my first startup, I realized how much more valuable I'd be if I knew how to program - even if my focus was biz-dev and marketing.

We came up with the idea to build a website where he'd post videos and notes that would teach me to code from scratch. Along the way, I'd blog about my experiences so new programmers could follow along. The big goal is to foster a community for people who are interested in learning how to hack, share resources, and meet each other.

It will be a fun project and we're excited to see where it takes us. Hopefully you'll all join in and make it better than just we could all by ourselves. We have a landing page set up and would love you to check it out and leave your email.

Feedback and advice are really appreciated! Here's the link again - http://howtoprogram.tv.

[dereg]

I really appreciate something like this. I have been looking to start learning programming, and seeing something like this makes me hopeful that it's not as painful as it looks.

[BrainScraps]

I really don't want to start pulling you guys toward "feature-creep", but maybe you could run a couple of "code dojos." Different pathways to Nirvana, as it were. (I'll elaborate)

I started learning from scratch a couple of weeks ago. I'm using this book http://www.amazon.com/Sams-Teach-Yourself-Hours-ebook/dp/B00... to help me learn Java. I chose Java because at the outset, I'm going to be working in the Android universe. Maybe some people want to cut their teeth on some Python, PHP or Ruby.

I know that resources are limited, but it's an idea. Anyhoo - I think the best thing about this is the potential for community-building. Kind of a "kiddie-pool" version of Stack Overflow where a n00b can be a n00b.

[sigzero]

Dang it I paid money to do just that!

[jefe78]

What is your target demographic? I'd love to see something for younger kids/teens.

[theli0nheart]

I think we're targeting everyone who wants to learn!

If anything, I think that younger kids might have an easier time grasping some concepts than those who are older and might have to adjust their way of thinking. Kids have no baseline. All in all, my goal is to make these lessons as clear and easy to follow as possible for everybody.

[sigzero]

What language(s)?

[tastybites]

Even if you don't ultimately become a programmer, just knowing enough to know how hard or easy something is will give you a large biz dev advantage. Lots and lots of tech execs (especially in silicon valley) are either former programmers or electrical engineers. It will also help your own due diligence efforts when evaluating partnerships or vendor technology.

Also, just knowing enough to fix problems in an emergency will make you look like a super hero to customers.