[polyfractal]

This is probably going to raise some ire, but am I in the minority of people who are tired of "How I learned to program?" type posts showing up on HN?

You learned how to code. Great, I am legitimately, truthfully happy for you. It's a very cool skill/career path and a wonderful feeling when you have the ability to create something on your own.

But...do we really need to read that on the frontpage? Am I the only one that finds these types of posts uninteresting?

It has almost become a cliche to wake up and find a frontpage "How I learned <language> in <time> as a <non-programming profession>"

[jseliger]

This is probably going to raise some ire, but am I in the minority of people who are tired of "How I learned to program?" type posts showing up on HN?

You're probably not the only one, but I rather like many of these posts, and I think they're useful for the large minority or small majority of HN readers who don't program. They're also handy encouragement to non-programmers in general: someone says "I could do it," describes how, and perhaps that'll act as an impetus and example.

Sometimes I learn something new from these kinds of posts.

[kragen]

I really appreciate them because I have no idea how to teach people how to program, but I know I need to do so.

[SkyMarshal]

I both agree and disagree. I don't much want to see them on the frontpage either, but I absolutely do want to see them because I forward them on to friends to whom I'm making the case that it is a good career move (as best career prep = CS + X, for all X [1]). It would be nice to have a subsection or something for them.

1. https://plus.google.com/114765095157367281222/posts/1mrFdZXm...

[polyfractal]

Re: kragen & jseliger - thanks for the explanations, I hadn't considered it from that point of view. I'll take a friendly view towards them in the future =)