When and Why to Learn to Program

Users who have contributed to the SO community have the ability to close and delete questions. Just because you've got to a stage where these "dumb" questions seem obvious to you, doesn't mean they're not valid questions. You can tell them to improve their question or show that they've put some effort so that they understand that it's ultimately a Q & A site and not a code production service.

As for the stats, is it really that suprising that newcomers ask more questions? I'd imagine those who have been programming for some time are more confident in their ability to research answers, check the usual resources (e.g. MDSN), read and understand open source code, and then use SO as a form of last resort.

Another business guy turned programmer here. It's good to see that there are more of us out there and that I'm not the only crazy one. Some advice I would give to anybody who wants to learn to code from scratch:

- Focus. Don't do it on the side, it would take too long. Treat learning to code as if it was your regular job(I tried to do 40-60hrs per week, I did about 2000hrs of coding in my first year)

- Don't hurry. Don't obsess about efficiency and how you use your time. You will waste tons of time on stupid bugs and knowledge you don't really need, that's just part of the learning process. Focus on putting in those hours week after week and you will see results.

- Work on a project. The only way to truely understand how things work is to actually use them. Don't hide yourself behind books, try to apply everything you learn asap.

- Give yourself permission to suck. This is really hard if you're older (I was 30 when I started to code). If you already have a career, you're not accustomed to be utterly clueless anymore. I had already forgotten how slow and painful it is to learn something from scratch. So give yourself a break and judge yourself the same way you would judge a stranger. Don't expect to become stellar in a matter of months just because you're smart. Hint: so is everybody else who is coding for a living.

You must be kidding. The worst thing about stackoverflow is not the naive questions but the obnoxious answers. Ask a question on SO, and the first priority of the Red Guards isn't to find an answer for you but to find a reason why your question doesn't even deserve an answer.

I've made good money over the decades as a programmer, but the technologies come and go like presidential administrations. I'm always a newbie at something. That's part of the fun. I'm always the guy who "doesn't know the difference between a variable and a browser" in something despite simultaneously serving on an "experts committee" in something else. I've lost count of the number of times I've spotted a "related question" on the SO sidebar while grazing for useful info, thought, Oh, yeah, what IS the answer to that one?, clicked it, and been informed by SO that they won't allow it to be answered because the question is "not constructive". Hunh?? The answer would have been constructive. Stopping people from answering a question that others are wondering about: THAT's what's not constructive.

Oh, but what if people are allowed to ask dumb questions, where dumb means questions that you already know the answer to? Well, then, it might be hard for you to find answers to your "smart" questions, right?

It sounds to me as though the solution is to worry less about dumb questions and more about the dumb search technology they have for matching incoming questions to their answers. With better technology than a bunch of tags and a 1980s-quality search engine, they wouldn't have to put so much effort into blocking questions and could put that effort into providing more answers.

I think that python is the easiest and best for random english speaker to learn. The syntax is presented in a way that is extremely intuitive i.e. english everywhere -- not brackets everywhere, and the fact that you are force to write with proper indentions creates good habits. (full disclosure: i learned with python and really only know javascript well, and some ruby)