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Turning into a hacker aged 27

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Re: Turning into a hacker aged 27

#51

Post by Rariel »

z0r wrote: post #37
guynamedloren wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have a very good point. I've never realized it before, but now that I think about it, this is something that I see all the time - a complete and utter lack of entry level positions on job boards and hiring pages across the web. I wonder if there's an opportunity to be had here? There must certainly be a thriving untapped market of entry-level programmers who may be willing to take a pay cut to hone their skills f…

Bwahaha, there's a huge market of entry-level workers in all kinds of fields (software being just one of them) where people work essentially for free (unpaid internships or internships with a small stipend). It's kind of disgusting!

Yeah the new entry level in law, government work and politics is "unpaid internship." I swear these people are taking huge advantage of the economy and the surplus of qualified workers.

Re: Turning into a hacker aged 27

#52

Post by h34t »

Harj wrote: post #44
guynamedloren wrote: post #6

I 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"…

I don't know why there's a general "mentorship" trend recently and I have a visceral dislike of that particular term but I do know that my efforts to learn programming became dramatically more effective when I had someone helping me. There are so many unknown unknowns for a new programmer, having someone to just help nudge you in the right direction occasionally is tremendously useful. If that person is also a good c…

Agreed. I hired an experienced programmer to help me part-time for a few weeks at the beginning of my current project. He boosted my confidence by showing me that I could actually write good code, corrected bad habits before they became ingrained, and sped up development significantly.

Re: Turning into a hacker aged 27

#53

Post by kai-zer »

keeptrying wrote: post #47
kai-zer wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sign of a top in the bubble? I am considering the jump as well (from i-banking), and have been putting in a considerable amount of work, but part of me is worried the growth we have seen will come crashing down soon and opportunities will disappear. It is hard to give up a nice salary and job security, especially when a similar position is very difficult to return to if things don't work.

Would you be interested in being tutored on writing a web app? I'm assuming you live in NYC? I can tutor you how to build a full web stack incising delaying it to the end user. I'm interested in building a set of lessons for this purpose which I would then like to sell.if you don't know programmimng then it would be a bg commitment but You could definitely afford such a course. If interested you can email me: railsno…

Not a total newbie, studied engineering, been programming little projects for years and had a few side jobs while in school doing mostly simple stuff. Will hit you up, curious what you have though, and always looking to make new connections.

Re: Turning into a hacker aged 27

#55

Post by Rariel »

Seems like there is a lot of this going around. My technical co-founder quit and now we're facing the question of getting another one or learning to code myself, since my other co-founder can't/won't. I remember being interested in coding at age 13, but for whatever reason I never followed up with it. I literally remember sitting in front of my Performa 636 CD looking at a web page telling me "How to become a hacker" and thinking eh...

Now I wish I had taken the leap. python at age 29 is no fun. But I am looking forward to learning it and becoming comfortable, much like when you move to a new city...or at least I hope.

Re: Turning into a hacker aged 27

#56

Post by baberuth »

Nai: Congrats for taking the plunge. Getting a faux internship will be immensely helpful. 18 months ago I did the exact same thing, begged a startup to let me work for them for free. Having someone who is invested in your success, interested in making you better, available for you to turn around and ask questions makes the process way faster.

18 months later, I still suck, but most importantly, my mentors taught me how to learn on my own, where to look for documentation, what sorts of problems to look for. I'm definitely not a 'hacker' in the way you're talking about, and every time I think I know something, I get slapped back to reality, but the REAL satisfaction is being able to just keep making forward progress. To be able to sit at a terminal and feel like your startup's destiny, YOUR destiny is in your hands is immensely empowering and a far cry from waiting and hoping your developer is on the same page as you.

One piece of advice, which I still struggle with: don't try to bite off too much. There's a compulsion to understand the entire codebase before you commit to that host startup's project. Don't. Figure out heat you want to get done and just try to understand a tiny corner of that codebase in isolation, then fix it. Keep doing that and you'll eventually have covered the whole codebase.

It's a long journey going forwards, but you'll look back and it'll seem like time has blasted by. Having good mentors in your startup will make all the difference.

Re: Turning into a hacker aged 27

#57

Post by sayemm »

endtime wrote: post #42
sayemm wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Initially I started with Python because everyone told me it was the best intro to coding, which it was and I'm glad I did. But I want to be focused on the web, so I think it's important to know PHP (despite some people knocking it, it's still used on 75% of the world's web servers). The two languages I'm really focusing on now is Ruby and PHP. I want to get good with both. And if you want to do anything on the web, y…

You know that you can do web development with Python, right? Django is a great solution for web development.

Oh yeah, I always hear great things about Django. Definitely want to try it out at some point. I'm just focusing on Ruby/PHP for now so as to not spread myself too thin.

Re: Turning into a hacker aged 27

#58

Post by orangecat »

Rariel wrote: post #55

Seems like there is a lot of this going around. My technical co-founder quit and now we're facing the question of getting another one or learning to code myself, since my other co-founder can't/won't. I remember being interested in coding at age 13, but for whatever reason I never followed up with it. I literally remember sitting in front of my Performa 636 CD looking at a web page telling me "How to become a hacker"…

python at age 29 is no fun.

I had a great time with it at 32. Of course, to fully appreciate Python it helps to have spent years using Java and Perl.

Re: Turning into a hacker aged 27

#59

Post by corruption »

Rariel wrote: post #54
acconrad wrote: post #41

Now we just need to turn 27 year old hackers into learning a bit of the business side (like myself).

You can do that with a lot of reading I think...

Theory != practical. It takes picking up the phone and face-to-face meetings in my experience.

Re: Turning into a hacker aged 27

#60

Post by Swannie »

guynamedloren wrote: post #6

I 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"…

I taught myself "programming". By the time I attended university I had written a few small programs/toys.

When we were formally taught Java at university, there were 10 hours of tutored labs available. I certainly didn't need any help to do the coursework, yet I went. I soon found some real hackers, who happily ripped my coding attempts to pieces (in a good way, mind).

When I started work on my first attempt at architecture, I got some guidance from some of the same people. Whilst design patterns were around, these people helped me understand which ones to look at, why, and what overkill was.

When I graduated and started working, I was already a "better" programmer than some of my peers, as I had been shown GDB (and hence JDB) by my mentors. However two years in I worked on a project with some talented developers, and again I learned about IOC etc.

Mentors save you a lot of time and energy. They are present in almost all trades where you have apprenticeships, and I for one know I thrive in that sort of situation - the one where I am challenged by someone who has been there before, who forces me to back up my designs/arguments by reading directed texts.

If I hadn't had them, I'd have found my own path. But I'd have spent a lot of time wondering somewhat aimlessly, reading semi-useful books cover to cover (yawn), and screwing up projects...

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