171–180 of 190 posts
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Exactly. As a 17-year-old I've been able to run my own little freelance business. The internet = opportunity if you use it right.
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!
I am so envious (when I read stuff like that) - I have been plodding along for 30 years now and am still learning how to program :(
Sorry if you got the impression somehow that I don't think I'm still learning to be a better programmer, just like you.
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Don't be. There are still barriers to entry in the profession. Sure one can cook up simple apps and google everything else after just weeks of learning, but if you sit down with somebody for a while you'll know and feel the difference. Which maybe the reason why more and more programmers are becoming entrepreneurs - management and other 'clients' usually have a poor eye on talent (esp. the young ones... you see the t…
Of course management have a poor eye for programming talent. It's not their field. Would you know a good mechanical engineer if you could only interview them for two hours and maybe see some of their past work? A good massage therapist? A good financial planner?
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My blog has comments. My email address is in my HN profile. If you wanted more information you could've asked instead of insulting me.
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.
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My biggest problem with the article is that it's essentially a puff piece about how awesome the writer thinks he is, and how special he is for being able to learn the basics in a short amount of time. The post is entirely too hand-wavy about actual details; telling someone to read some blogs, Q&A sites and code doesn't help anyone. Where is the substance? Were there any interesting ah-ha moments? What would he do dif…
> Were there any interesting ah-ha moments? Yes, all of them. I have them every day. Today's was Solr's facet.limit/.prefix/.mincount methods as it relates to what I'm working on. Nothing stands out because it was a huge bolus of information. > What would he do differently? Nothing. > What guidelines would he give to someone else in a similar position? http://mattdeboard.net/2011/11/23/how-i-became-a-programmer/ > Ho…
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.
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> Were there any interesting ah-ha moments? Yes, all of them. I have them every day. Today's was Solr's facet.limit/.prefix/.mincount methods as it relates to what I'm working on. Nothing stands out because it was a huge bolus of information. > What would he do differently? Nothing. > What guidelines would he give to someone else in a similar position? http://mattdeboard.net/2011/11/23/how-i-became-a-programmer/ > Ho…
What did you actually program though? That's all I want to know. What did you build and how did you decide what to build? How small did you start? What was the biggest project you undertook before you got hired?
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I'm sorry but you can't become a _programmer_ in 12 weeks. You can become a pretty good code wrangler, you can put togeter a decent website or an application but you still have around 10 more years to go (as shown above/below http://norvig.com/21-days.html ).
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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.
Congratulations, now do yourself a favor and read this: http://norvig.com/21-days.html