[sayemm]

Funny reading this post because the title pretty much describes what I'm doing, taking some time off to hone my programming chops and I originally came from a finance background. Looking back, if I had to suggest my own list to someone who's serious about learning:

1. Be obsessed with Github + Hacker News and always consult @yegg's archive for guidance - http://gabrielweinberg.com/startupswiki/Ask_YC_Archive

2. Start off by building a web app using the LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP), and HTML/CSS, and set up your own server on Slicehost or the like. Also learn Javascript and jQuery.

3. Choose a good text editor and familiarize yourself with it, it's a long-term investment.

4. Focus on getting good with one or two languages, and keep building stuff and learning from others.

That's just for web stuff though. For being a solid developer, Joel Spolsky recommends throwing these four books in there too to build a good CS foundation: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/414779/what-should-a-self...