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How I Became a Programmer in ~12 Weeks

mattdeboard.net

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Re: How I Became a Programmer in ~12 Weeks

#161

Post by nhangen »

mattdeboard wrote: post #160
nhangen wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try separating yourself from the content for a moment and you'll see he isn't insulting you, but finding holes in your work. One thing you'll notice here is that the community is very blunt, and often comes across as rude, but as a new hacker myself I've grown to appreciate the honesty.

Buddy I was a Marine for over ten years and spent years in combat zones. There is a difference between bluntness/honesty and disrespect/rudeness, and I am well acquainted with what that line looks like.

And I was an Army Soldier in Afghanistan. That has nothing to do with any of this. It's clear your feathers are easily ruffled. I'd work on that.

Re: How I Became a Programmer in ~12 Weeks

#162

Post by [deleted] »

nhangen wrote: post #161
mattdeboard wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buddy I was a Marine for over ten years and spent years in combat zones. There is a difference between bluntness/honesty and disrespect/rudeness, and I am well acquainted with what that line looks like.

And I was an Army Soldier in Afghanistan. That has nothing to do with any of this. It's clear your feathers are easily ruffled. I'd work on that.

[deleted]

Re: How I Became a Programmer in ~12 Weeks

#163

Post by vkatluri »

jarek wrote: post #155
vkatluri wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's probably because you scare them. Here are people who have spent several years in school to gain a certificate that shows they know how to program. You may never be a competition to them in the job market but the knowledge that someone spent close to 12 weeks (not even a semester) and was able to land a basic job programming is probably rubbing their sense of entitlement the wrong way. Me personally, I have a M.S…

I am certain most HN readers who are expressing negative sentiments here and who have spent several years in school feel very threatened by a Django coder.

I don't want to get too personal but do you go about your life this negatively and sarcastically all the time? How sad it must be.

Re: How I Became a Programmer in ~12 Weeks

#164

Post by gwern »

jebblue wrote: post #125
gwern wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, in general terms, if the USMC (or the Army, or the Navy, or...) really did build up work ethic - a personality trait that correlates quite a bit with income - why do veterans seem to do so poorly, even veterans who never experience the confound of war? Because personality traits are, like IQ, very tough to alter. (This is why that psilocybin-increases-Openness study got so much play.)

>> why do veterans seem to do so poorly What are you saying that we do poorly at? Your comments are more "confounding" to me than any war situation I was ever in.

You do poorly at kicking ass & making bank in civilian life. This is a tricky subject, of course (any statistics from 2001 and on are basically worthless because all the suicides and whatnot from Iraq & Afghanistan trash the data), and there are all sorts of correlation/causation problems (maybe the people who join would do poorly in the first place - these days, most of the graduating class of Harvard heads to Wall Street and not officer training).

But if you have any citations to the contrary - that veterans do better than one would predict from their pre-military life - I'd be glad to hear them. Conscientiousness is as important as IQ, and any intervention which genuinely improves either is really valuable and ought to be well known.

Re: How I Became a Programmer in ~12 Weeks

#165

Post by jarek »

vkatluri wrote: post #163
jarek wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am certain most HN readers who are expressing negative sentiments here and who have spent several years in school feel very threatened by a Django coder.

I don't want to get too personal but do you go about your life this negatively and sarcastically all the time? How sad it must be.

Pretty much, yeah. I'm sure it would be much more fun if I could get excited about 12 weeks of Django, but that's just not the kind of person I am :)

Re: How I Became a Programmer in ~12 Weeks

#166

Post by kunley »

Volpe wrote: post #104
kunley wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a ridiculous point. If you don't have such understanding, you're just copypasting someone else's instructions.

You are misinterpreting what I'm saying. Read it with a little less cynicism.

Well, I agree we probably were saying the same things using different words, as jarek put it, thus the misunderstanding.

Re: How I Became a Programmer in ~12 Weeks

#167

Post by Fliko »

viscanti wrote: post #119
Fliko wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it isn't a puff piece, he's not going on about how awesome he is, he is just saying "Hey look, you can get a entry job programming without learning how to program for 4 years.", and then goes on to say how he does it. If he spent all of his time documenting everything so you could be satisfied then he wouldn't of turned up where he was, and in no way was he actually planning on writing that blog post until tons o…

He spent a substantial amount of time talking about his motivation to become a programmer. The other jobs he worked at, etc. Then once it comes to how he actually did it, he drops the ball and misses a great opportunity to tell an interesting story. I don't think anyone is asking for a day-by-day or hour-by-hour recap, or a step-by-step tutorial, but he could have done a much better job with adding some more substanc…

Ahh I misread into your post. Yeah, the article wasn't well written and could've gone into more detail about different things but honestly I feel that an experienced programmer would know a better route for someone to take, for example I know a lot of programmers suggest people start with SICP.

Re: How I Became a Programmer in ~12 Weeks

#168

Post by Fliko »

crikli wrote: post #108

I can play a few Megadeth riffs and I've written two very shitty songs. This does not make me a musician or a songwriter. It makes me a dude who can create noises that resemble music. The OP groks the basics and has learned how to use Django. This does not make him a programmer. It makes him a dude who can create code that resembles a program.

A musician is someone who can communicate to other people via musical instruments. You are a musician, you just might not be a very good one.

Similarly a songwriter is someone who creates songs, so you are a songwriter, you just might not be a good one.

Re: How I Became a Programmer in ~12 Weeks

#169

Post by mattdeboard »

kristiandupont wrote: post #157
mattdeboard wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of information do you mean? I programmed, asked questions, programmed, read source code, and programmed. There's zero magic. I learned in the same way all human beings learn. We're knowledge workers. I gained enough programming knowledge to be a programmer. Where's the confusion?

Being a programmer myself, this is a bit theoretical but I think if I wasn't and I sat down to read an article names "How I became a Programmer", I would expect a couple of pointers to where to start, what to do and how to do it. Besides from the point about learning a language rather than a framework, your post mostly says "It took me 12 week to learn programming" and that the way to do it is the obvious: read stuff…

Judging by the huge volume of emails and comments on the blog, retweets and all that good stuff the article generated, I feel pretty good about the article

Re: How I Became a Programmer in ~12 Weeks

#170

Post by _gd3l »

mseebach wrote: post #146
dlf wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Awesome. I wish I was doing this at 17. Ten years later I'm making up for lost time. Congrats for getting after it early!

To offer a counter-point, I was running a consulting business at 17 (OK, a little later) went from hack to hack and didn't even know I was failing to learn and improve myself. Ran up debt, and went through what in retrospect looks a lot like bouts of depression. Now, I'm going on 30 in my first "real" job and I feel like I'm making up for lost time. There's no magic right way to do it.

I don't do something unless the profits are clear. I once had $3,000.00 stolen from me, so I've learned early on to avoid anything too risky. And I'd rather make pennies doing something I love than dollars doing something I hate. It's absolutely different for everyone! But I'm confident you've probably learned a lot from your endeavors and have more respect for money. It's an interesting thing when you first start dealing with money...yikes...sometimes we have to learn the hard way.
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