Teach Yourself Programming in 10 Years

[zridling]

Why is everyone in such a rush? Peter Norvig asks in his article, Teach Yourself Programming in 10 Years, that seems to ring true:

Researchers (Hayes, Bloom) have shown it takes about ten years to develop expertise in any of a wide variety of areas, including chess playing, music composition, painting, piano playing, swimming, tennis, and research in neuropsychology and topology. There appear to be no real shortcuts: even Mozart, who was a musical prodigy at age 4, took 13 more years before he began to produce world-class music. In another genre, the Beatles seemed to burst onto the scene with a string of #1 hits and an appearance on the Ed Sullivan show in 1964. But they had been playing small clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg since 1957, and while they had mass appeal early on, their first great critical success, Sgt. Peppers, was released in 1967. Samuel Johnson thought it took longer than ten years: "Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price." And Chaucer complained "the lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne."

[gjehle]

words of wisdom

[mouser]

here's his first piece of advice which i think makes sense:

Get interested in programming, and do some because it is fun. Make sure that it keeps being enough fun so that you will be willing to put in ten years.

this mirrors my advice to people learning, and to the strategy of learning, which is to recognize that the hard part is motivation.

whatever approach you take - it should focus on the fact that you can't just read and learn how to program, you actually have to program. a lot.  so the key is to follow a path that will keep you motivated and enjoying it as you code, especially in the begining.

[f0dder]

For as long as I've had a clue, I've always despised the "teach yourself X in Y (short) timeunits". It just doesn't work that way. Indeed, do something you find interesting, and if it works for you, continue from there.

One of my younger brothers is playing around with HTML+JavaScript to do some simple graphical effects, as well as some simple LUA scripting for Garry's Mod for Half-Life 2. That seems like a pretty good starting point to me, and I'll nudge him in the right direction if he keeps up his interest in programming.

[mouser]

people always hate on the "teach yourself x in y days"

personally i don't have any problem with such books, but i advise people to treat them like candy - you could read through one quickly to get a taste and get started, but then throw it away and get yourself a real book as soon as you actually get started.