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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

#51

Post by soneca »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #49
soneca wrote: post #42

I started to learn to code last November at 37yo. About 30 hours a week for two months I finished the Front End Certificate from freeCodeCamp (highly recommend the site for starters). Then I decided it was better to build my own projects with the tech I wanted to learn (mostly React) using official documentation and tutorials. This is what I accomplished in around 3 months: www.rodrigo-pontes.glitch.me Then I started…

Clickable: http://rodrigo-pontes.glitch.me/ Congrats on your achievement. :)

Thanks! (there is nothing fancy in my portfolio, btw, just wanted to share it so people in similar situation can have an idea of how an average output after 6 months of coding could look like)

Re: How I learned to code in my 30s

#52

Post by colmvp »

> Immersion means 100% focus. If possible, no friends, no drinking, no TV, just reading and writing code. If you take five minutes off to read the news, be aware you are breaking the mental state of immersion. Stay focused, be patient, your mind will adapt. Eliminate all distractions, of which you may find doubt to be the loudest. Immersion is the difference between success and failure.

Certainly, I think Deep Work require full concentration. So when in the mode of learning, I find keeping focus instead of going to a website to read news, or checking e-mail/messages to be incredibly important in maximizing the incremental process of grasping concepts.

That being said, whereas the author seems to prefer taking a few months to go deep into it, I prefer to immerse myself over a long period of time by learning and practicing a few hours per day (just like an instrument), letting my mind stew in the knowledge during diffuse thinking periods, and then come back to it the next day.

Re: How I learned to code in my 30s

#53

Post by Baeocystin »

alexee wrote: post #40

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 tr…

Give him a real problem to work on. It doesn't have to be big, but it has to be directly relevant to his life. Solving toy problems for fun is a good start, but to get further engagement, you need a reason to be doing x, y, or z.

Re: How I learned to code in my 30s

#54

Post by flukus »

ryandrake wrote: post #46
taurath wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. The problem in general is that there are very few active "junior" level positions about, and a lot of people wanting to break in - see /r/cscareerquestions. For later learners especially self taught learners the problem really comes from finding the FIRST job, not the second when they have professional experience. Coming out of college though is a different experience. If you're 33 and just finished a BS…

There may not be a lot of jobs out there for junior people but there are very few out there for people with 20+ years of experience, either. Everyone seems to be looking for that “4-6 year” sweet spot where they think they are getting the best of both worlds: someone senior enough to have made and learned from a few mistakes but not too senior that they have to offer more than peanuts and worthless equity as pay.

I think it depends on the technology stack actually, I've noticed it's been trending up in mine (.net) with many now wanting 8-9 years experience. It seems like the sweet spot is generally age of technology divided by 2.

Re: How I learned to code in my 30s

#55

Post by bgar »

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.

Learning Haskell by reading the most influential papers is also a good approach.

https://hackwithlambda.github.io/reading-group/

Re: How I learned to code in my 30s

#56

Post by jordache »

Is a full stack person still realistic with today's web technologies?

I mean to build up expert level skillset, you'd have to really dedicate your self into learning the particularities of not just languages but also their runtime environments.

Unless you have no life, and only sleep, eat, code, or super intelligent, being able to absorb and stay current with everything.....

Other than that, I just don't see the full stack mentality working

Re: How I learned to code in my 30s

#57

Post by jarsin »

ice109 wrote: post #38
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.

I honestly have never worked with anyone in software like that. I think you are a lot more rare than you know at least when it comes to software dev. But I do know other industries are filled with smart people that hate it and somehow stuck with it only for the money. For example attorneys...

Re: How I learned to code in my 30s

#59

Post by AndyNemmity »

I'm 36 and learning how to be a real programmer. Was a Linux Admin, and an architect for my career. Did presales, and became an expert at a lot of different roles within the field.

Never was truly a developer, and decided I wanted to accept a job as one. I've programmed in the past, how hard can it be?

Wow, it's been enlightening. Really hard. I thought it would be straight forward since I've used scripted quite a bit in perl in my past, but being a developer is much more than writing a few scripts to automate a task.

I'm a few months in now, and I am still slower than all my colleagues by quite a bit, and the main language I'm working in has changed already, moved from Python to Go.

Even right now, I'm stuck on an issue around pointers and data structures that feels like it should be easy, and I'm just not getting it.

All you can do is keep confidence up, and keep at it. Immersing in it, and knowing that irrational levels of effort will lead to results.

I thought it would be easier though :)

Re: How I learned to code in my 30s

#60

Post by dschulz »

dzink wrote: post #12

You need more stories like this to show people who wouldn't normally consider CS as a viable, lucrative path to a second career. Areas with high unemployment and people in dwindling old industries may get a second wind in life if they tried his approach. A big change like this also requires multiple exposures to the currently much easier to reach CS education as a possible solution, so I hope more people produce acce…

I'm 36 and already feel "old" and unfit to continue pursuing a career as a software developer, which I consider(ed?) my dream job. I began programming at ~20 yo but had to work in another barely related field (still in IT) because where I live it's more profitable as a lone ranger. It's difficult to find peers in my area.

I work as an independent consultant wearing many hats, doing all kind of weird network related jobs for small cable operators and small/medium businesses in a shitty country in south america. This includes devops tasks, planning data networks with structured cabling, fiber optics, setting up and maintaining servers, routers, switches and a bunch of appliances that I didn't even know they existed a few years ago (all that ugly shit in HFC networks). I hate my job and feel very unhappy and depressed. I'm on meds, many visits to psychiatrist lately.

All these years I kept learning all I can. I'm an avid *nix user, can program in a few languages and have read more about programming languages, libraries, frameworks, etc. that any other subject that I can think of. I dropped out of university only a few years from getting a degree but continued spending my free time learning about software development just because I like it. I enjoyed many detours with many technologies, loved learning Java, C++/Qt, Python, Go, Perl, etc. I spent too much time and money in books, online courses, software licenses, etc that I feel failed and guilty.

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