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How I learned to code in my 30s

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Re: How I learned to code in my 30s

#31

Post by samstave »

flubert wrote: post #11
oblio wrote: post #2

Somewhat related, perhaps the most spectacular story of a late coder I've ever heard is that of https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Pruteanu (somewhat controversial Romanian literary critic and politician). Basically, despite having a major in Romanian literature and spending a lifetime as a literary critic, with almost 0 contact with computers, he decided in his late 40s and early 50s to understand the things beh…

>I read an 1 meter [high stack] of books about the subject. Sounds like a good hook for website. Instead of learn X in 21 days: http://www.1meterofbooks/programming

That unit of measurement should be dubbed the Pruteanu

As in:

"How many Pruteanus until I'll be proficient in ML if I have zero understanding of the subject"

Re: How I learned to code in my 30s

#33

Post by drostie »

Barrin92 wrote: post #21
oblio wrote: post #2

Somewhat related, perhaps the most spectacular story of a late coder I've ever heard is that of https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Pruteanu (somewhat controversial Romanian literary critic and politician). Basically, despite having a major in Romanian literature and spending a lifetime as a literary critic, with almost 0 contact with computers, he decided in his late 40s and early 50s to understand the things beh…

on the topic of book learning, is there some generally considered principal choice when it comes to learning Haskell? There seem to be some competing ones with widely varying opinion.

There are indeed a lot of competing ones. Highly recommended:

• CIS 194 @ UPenn, https://www.seas.upenn.edu/~cis194/fall16/

• Haskell Programming from first principles, http://haskellbook.com/

• Real World Haskell, http://book.realworldhaskell.org/

Re: How I learned to code in my 30s

#34

Post by bitcrusher »

koolba wrote: post #29
owebmaster wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Let's just say we guessed wrong. ;-) Not that wrong, imho. > my mom discouraged me from majoring in CS because she literally thought programming was too easy to justify 4 years of classroom training, and she thought that the job market for programmers would quickly saturate. This part is real wisdom. The best developers I know (and I myself, which I consider an above average programmer) learned how to program by th…

That's the distinction of coding vs CS. Building CRUD apps using existing frameworks is coding. Building said frameworks and the rest of the software that powers those CRUD apps takes more. I don't mean to rag on simple projects or coding either. It's just as noble as any other profession. But to say that a random Rails or Node developer could write something like Postgres is laughable. It's not the degree that makes…

I don't mean to belittle you either, but this is hogwash. Of course a Rails or Node developer wouldn't be able to write Postgres without ramp-up time...

Maybe what you're saying is that the ramp-up time would be LONGER for someone starting from Rails or Node only knowledge to being an infrastructure developer?

Any highly sophisticated application ( Postgres, LLVM, etc ) requires some advanced levels of domain knowledge but they aren't impenetrable fortresses of skill that no mere mortals can access.

I think, somewhere along the way, a lot of developers started believing this fantasy that they were the keepers of secret knowledge that only a few select individuals knew... GOOG and MSFT perpetuated that with esoteric interviewing processes and cult-of-personality style branding. The truth is... the fundamentals of CS aren't terribly difficult nor are they even terribly exciting. You can absolutely learn them on your own or even as you go.

Re: How I learned to code in my 30s

#35

Post by flukus »

projectramo wrote: post #9
buckbova wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why should that be noteworthy? Because there's perceived ageism in this industry, so saying you're just getting started in your 30's is interesting.

Isn't the same ageism -- true or perceived -- in all industries? Would you be feel comfortable starting med-school in your 30s? A PhD? Training to be a plumber or an architect? If anything, because programming takes a shorter time to become productive (say 2 years), I would think it would attract older job switchers. (edit: Before people give me counter-examples, note:I know these things do happen)

Other industries (most anyway) don't whinge about a chronic skills shortage and rely on imported (and exported) labor as much as ours does.

Re: How I learned to code in my 30s

#36

Post by [deleted] »

buckbova wrote: post #8
projectramo wrote: post #5

This is generally a decent article about the balancing non-technical skills, and exerting effort in learning. I found it noteworthy that the "hook" in the title is that the person started in (gasp) their 30s. Why should that be noteworthy? Why wouldn't someone start coding in their 30s, 40s or 50s? Now it is true that starting a new profession late in life may not always make sense because, presumably, you have to li…

> Why should that be noteworthy? Because there's perceived ageism in this industry, so saying you're just getting started in your 30's is interesting.

[deleted]

Re: How I learned to code in my 30s

#38

Post by ice109 »

jarsin wrote: post #4

What i always tell people if you find yourself naturally drawn to it then you will eventually find some level of success. If your in for just the money then you will not stick with it and it probably won't happen. Same is true for just about most things in life. This guy found he was naturally drawn to it. End of story.

people say this a lot but it's pretty hollow. if you're smart enough you can do it even if you don't like it. anecdotally I'm a fairly good dev (full stack, know several languages, several projects under my belt) and I hate it. the day I move from technical to management will be the greatest day of my life.

Re: How I learned to code in my 30s

#40

Post by alexee »

My father is 59 and started to learn programming half a year ago. So far I was giving him algorithmic tasks to learn basic language constructs, he is now comfortable with basic Java and is able to solve most of easy problems from programming contests. And idea where to go from here? I don't think solving more difficult problems (like that involving algorithms or creative thinking) would make sense at this point. I tried to give him simple GUI project (tick-tac-toe in Swing), this kind of worked with lots of my help, but of course it was badly designed with model-view mixed, and he is unable to understand design pattern concepts at this point.
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