Hi, I'm a novice in your field. I've read about your field in the popular media, and have romantic notions about becoming extremely successful in your field, even though I have 8 years less experience than even a recent graduate. Let me tell you some cliche ideas I've summarized from reading blogs, even though you probably have decades or more experience than I do. Ok, now go ahead and ask me ANYTHING. Anything at all!
Haha, you never know what kind of response you'll get by putting something on the internet!
Asking me about computer programming is going to be pretty silly. But if you're thinking about learning to code and want to understand what it's like to learn a new skill, I can probably share some insights.
As a complete beginner, I've found both to be very accessible, although the CS50 course is much more rigorous and much more of a pain since it's mostly taught in C99. While I can zip through chapters in Chris Pine's book, which teaches Ruby, I spend days working through each of the CS50 problem sets.
At the beginning, the biggest surprise was how hard it was. It sounds obvious, but programming is about thinking like a machine. If you're like most normal people, this is going to be hard because you just don't naturally think like a machine!
After a while, the framework of approaching a problem becomes more second nature, but it's still hard, especially if you're learning by yourself. I remember showing off what I thought was a completed program to my girlfriend. She played with it for about 5 seconds before breaking it by putting some input I hadn't planned for.
If I started again, I would have enrolled in a community college for physical course just so I could have peers check my work and people to talk to when I hit a wall. I quit my job to learn to code so I'm fairly motivated, but even then, working by yourself has a way of a eating that away. I'm moving to New York City next month and the first thing I'm going to do is get plugged in.