Ask HN: The Required Fundamentals for Self-Taught Programming

Im self taught and worked with CS majors as well as other self taught ppl. Maybe stating the obvious but its interesting that CS majors begin with fundamentals and work up to abstractions while self-taught people begin with beginner-friendly tools like nodejs then spend the next decade peeling back layers to learn all the inner workings of tools they used since day 1. Lots of prototypes kept me interested and built a habit of working on personal projects daily.

SICP was helpful in peeling back abstraction layers but I lost interest a quarter of the way through. I found The Rust Programming Book[0] really approachable coming from a nodejs background. Rust's compiler is so helpful I learned more about CS just working through the exercises and making mistakes. Rust really holds your hand but the book describes all of the "why" behind Rust's memory safety. Completely changed how I structure programs. After the Rust book I dove right into personal projects in Swift and fundamentals I learned in Rust translated very well.

[0] https://nostarch.com/rust-programming-language-2nd-edition

Data structures and algorithms. I don't have a formal education either but after 25 years of programming, IMO everything boils down to data structures and algorithms - the former more so than the latter. I think everything else comes from experience gained from on the job training because you need to train the pattern matching part of your brain. A good foundation in data structures and algorithms simplifies that process a lot.

Data structures are how programmers describe reality in the Wittgenstein/Sapir-Whorf sense and they shape our understanding as much as we use them to encode it. The right data structures drastically simplify problems and the wrong data structures turn them into nightmares of bugs and spaghetti code. Database schemas are the natural extension of this at the application, rather than module, level.

I don't have a specific recommendation because data structures is such a broad field, but an MIT OCW data structures and algorithms course is a good place to start. Oh and the book Designing Data Intensive Applications for a higher level overview of how data structures and algorithms are used in the field.

If you really want to learn programming.

1. Buy SICP and put it on your book shelf.

2. Don't read it, instead read random StackOverflow posts talking about the content.

3. Spend the next 10-50 years trying to understand what people are talking about on various related forums.

4. Add more legendary books to your shelf over these 10 years, like The Art of Computer Programming. Fawn over their greatness. DON'T READ THEM.

5. Go on long walks, take spirit journeys to harsh natural locations, put your life in danger while you meditate on the concepts.

6. Blog profusely about your experiences.

7. Optional: actually write code.

The absolutely most fundamental thing to master is to read books about the concepts, practices, histories and philosophies of the craft.

It's become very popular to learn how to assemble code by following step-by-step tutorials and watching YouTube demonstrations. It does get the job done for a lot of people, but it usually doesn't develop very strong or deep foundational knowledge. As a result, people who don't make a point to leave that world generally end up stuck under a low skill ceiling.

So whatever suggestions you find in other replies here, favor books (and perhaps deep courses) over anything more shallow. And among those books, favor those that are heavy on prose and explain things over those that just guide you through doing things. And then when you get the books, sit down with them and really work through them.