Turning into a hacker aged 27
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Turning into a hacker aged 27
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Re: Turning into a hacker aged 27
#2Brilliant - I'm in a similar position (other, very useful and valuable, business skills that aren't worth nearly as much if I were to commit to a tech start-up, and next to no coding experience). I look forward to the journey, and perhaps some inspiration.
Re: Turning into a hacker aged 27
#3That's the age when I really started coding. Now I'm in my second full-time programming job and building a pretty great resume.
My tips:
1) Study and practice. Pick a topic you don't know, choose a book that's well reviewed, and learn it.
2) It's better to ask a dumb question than to never know the answer.
3) Do a bit (not too much) of reading on things like HN and JoelOnSoftware, etc, to help you pick what to study next. (Like when I read Spolsky's argument for why distributed version control is better than centralized, I eventually decided to learn Git. Or when I saw all the buzz about Rails, it pointed me that direction.)
3) Learn the crap out of your tools. I started out with a Windows HTML editor. A couple years later, I was using Vim in Unix and I'm way more productive. But I'm still learning new stuff about it every day. I intend to know it backwards and forwards eventually.
4) You'll never know everything - don't get discouraged.
Re: Turning into a hacker aged 27
#4Brilliant - I'm in a similar position (other, very useful and valuable, business skills that aren't worth nearly as much if I were to commit to a tech start-up, and next to no coding experience). I look forward to the journey, and perhaps some inspiration.
It's sounds you're still undecided as to whether you want to take the leap? What are your reservations? Care to share?
Re: Turning into a hacker aged 27
#5That's the age when I really started coding. Now I'm in my second full-time programming job and building a pretty great resume. My tips: 1) Study and practice. Pick a topic you don't know, choose a book that's well reviewed, and learn it. 2) It's better to ask a dumb question than to never know the answer. 3) Do a bit (not too much) of reading on things like HN and JoelOnSoftware, etc, to help you pick what to study…
Thanks for the tips. Out of curiosity, what were you doing before and what made you jump to programming?
Re: Turning into a hacker aged 27
#6I have huge respect for your drive and ambition, but there's something I just don't get (and it applies to many aspiring hackers/entrepreneurs, not just you). Why do you need a mentor? Why "cold emailing startups"? Why do you need somebody to "take you in"? Why not just hit the books and start hacking away?
This isn't meant to be a personal attack on you by any means. I've noticed a huge movement toward "mentorship" lately, and I'm just not seeing the purpose. Even worse, those who do not get these critical mentorships wither away and blame others for their shortcomings and failures. Obviously you were fortunate enough to find a group who "took you in", but what would happen if you didn't?
Downvote if you want, but I'm honestly curious as to what's going on with this mentorship trend.
Re: Turning into a hacker aged 27
#7As important as reading and learning tools is; my experience is that you'll absorb much more by starting hobby projects and hacking your way through them.
After you've set up a development environment (on your home machine / laptop will do), pick a project that's been on your mind and just start. Everytime you run into something you don't know how to do, hit stackoverflow, read through APIs, and figure it out. Piece by piece you'll become a programmer.
Good luck!
Re: Turning into a hacker aged 27
#8commented on your post.
I'm experiencing the excruciating pain of not being able to get your hands dirty... having great devs is great.. but the whole process of turning your vision to reality through code is something I'm embarking on as well.
Re: Turning into a hacker aged 27
#9I'm 25 years old and I'm pretty much doing the same thing. Taking time off to work on my programming chops instead of jumping into another idea again as the "business guy". It sure beats spending six-figures getting an MBA or going to grad school these days... and I'm learning a ton. I'm absolutely loving it.
I learned Python first, then learned how to use linux and emacs, played with firefox add-ons to learn Javascript better, then started building web apps in PHP/MySQL, and now my plan is to spend my days learning and building stuff in Ruby and my nights working through these four books: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/414779/what-should-a-self...
Best resource ever is from @yegg, I always check this for guidance before learning anything new: http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/startupswiki/Ask_YC_Archive
I've come a long way since I first set up my server on Slicehost. Good luck on your journey too.
Re: Turning into a hacker aged 27
#10Any advice for a 24yr old trying to work in high performance computing?
Decided about a year ago to switch careers, and I've been getting familiar w/ a few low level languages (C, C++, Java), and working my way through a few books like SICP, Cormen's and Skiena's algorithms books, Code Complete, etc.
The OP seems to have landed an internship already, whereas I have been failing miserably at this. I've been cold emailing companies, applying for internships, etc. I've written a few basic beginner type programs, nothing large scale or real world yet.
I have a ways to go, but it sure would be nice to have some sort of mentoring and/or get involved with real projects of some kind. I'm doing great self-teaching, but there's obviously value in working with more experienced developers. I know having code to show is important (github, opensource), but what else should I be doing to land that first software job?