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A 37-year-old wanting to learn computer science

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Re: A 37-year-old wanting to learn computer science

#51

Post by chbkall »

surgical_fire wrote: post #49
chbkall wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you give me a small example of the kind of small irritations you are talking about here?

For example - I wrote a script that automatically rsyncs a bunch of folders I care about to one external HD, and then replicates the backup to a different external HD for backup purposes. That sort of thing that would require you to run a bunch of commands and that you have to do from time to time. Automating it to a single script is cool. I have a friend that wrote a bot to track the prices of stuff that he wants to…

Ah. This definitely sounds exciting and makes me think.

Re: A 37-year-old wanting to learn computer science

#53

Post by giantg2 »

I wouldn't try to get into. I'm in my 30s and age discrimination is real. Nobody wants to hire a 30 something entry level engineer. They dont even want 30 something mid-level engineers. I know because I have a disability that seems to have capped me at these levels, I'm about to be fired, and the job prospects look abysmal.

Re: A 37-year-old wanting to learn computer science

#54

Post by patchule »

mattlondon wrote: post #13

Good luck. I'd recommend finding a MOOC course that covers some of the fundamentals of computer science to make sure you have a really solid grasp of the fundamentals - the whys and how's etc. Data structures, algorithms, networking, databases, design paradigms (so Object orientated Vs functional Vs whatever), testing etc. If they use multiple programming languages in different classes then all the better as I think…

“knowledgeable friend who you can ask questions”

A friend who will randomly lie and mislead you in ways you can’t detect. Might be better to use ai for stuff like writing tests, summarizing data, and other low level stuff one can effectively supervise and where errors are low impact.

I would not treat current llm based ai models as an expert or a trusted friend but as the exact opposite, an unfriendly fake-expert. Unfriendly fake experts are still extremely useful if they work for free and can be scaled up, so definitely op should use ai, but he should never trust it.

Re: A 37-year-old wanting to learn computer science

#55

Post by WillAdams »

chbkall wrote: post #42
WillAdams wrote: post #35

I've been re-learning CS (programmed as a kid, then missed getting a minor in CS in college after the service by one 300-level course which wasn't being re-offered when I needed it) and then just did (La)TeX and AppleScript for my day job, but am now trying to create a tool for CNC which is quite different from those which have existed previously, and one thing which has helped a lot is MIT OCW: - the Python courses…

Thank you for sharing these valuable resources. I am already on to the OCW Python course and SICP textbook. How did you start on these resources? Did you start reading them because you needed them in your current project Or did you read them because you thought they will be useful for your project?

I read SICP a long while back, so the video lecture was a useful review.

For the balance, I managed to get a working version of my project pretty quickly when the Python version of OpenSCAD first became available: https://pythonscad.org/ but I quickly hit a plateau and was having trouble adding features and improving it, so I began researching and trying to learn what I needed for:

https://github.com/WillAdams/gcodepreview

Been collecting lists of the books I've been using at:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/21394355-william-adams...

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/21394355-william-adams...

I will note that my preference (as a person coming at this from (La)TeX is for Literate Programming:

http://literateprogramming.com/

so have also put together:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/21394355-william-adams...

Re: A 37-year-old wanting to learn computer science

#58

Post by upghost »

If you want to speed run things and you have a little money to spend, I'd check out Dave Beazley's workshops, particularly his Advanced Python Mastery course[1].

One advantage you have over senior developers is that senior developers need to be generalists, you have the opportunity to go deep. It is entirely conceivable you could learn Postgres, JavaScript, or Python better than someone who has been programming in those languages daily for over a decade simply because they have a lot of other things to worry about. They can't read the manual cover to cover, no time. You can. Being a deep specialist in a technology has a lot of value.

If you find a programming community you love, start going to conferences as soon as possible. There are often financial opportunities available for new developers.

This is not going to happen overnight. In most cases to get proficient you can expect that working 3 hours a day, 3 days per week, it will take you about 3 years to reach a point where you might be employable -- although you will probably find you need to put in more time than that. But you can reach a point where it is enjoyable before then.

Good luck.

[1]: https://dabeaz.com/advprog.html

Re: A 37-year-old wanting to learn computer science

#59

Post by globalnode »

chbkall wrote: post #36
fn-mote wrote: post #20

> My lovely wife ([…] who believes I have adult ADHD) is supportive of my journey, and has no qualms becoming the only breadwinner of the family. Some advice for the OP: 1. Don’t give up working. IMO, a job provides structure to the ADHD and keeps you moving forward instead of spinning your wheels. Change job? Sure. Work 25 hours/week? Sure. Not 0 though. 2. Before you start on the projects, spend some time learning…

Hey thank you for the time you took to comment and offer advice. 1. I agree. I am still working on the community project which my wife is building - it has started to grow and looks like it has the potential to become a sustainable source of income. I have built the website and automated some stuff for her. I am also honing my skill as a woodworker and toymaker - learning to make wooden toys. 2. I did the HtDP versio…

when i was learning i remember crying into my c++ book because i had no idea what they were trying to say. learning computing did not come easy to me. i think the only thing to be wary of is feeling like a fraud, even though you may eventually know a lot and be an accomplished programmer (it helps if you have people that believe in you). good luck to you though and i hope you enjoy learning all the new and interesting things in this field!

Re: A 37-year-old wanting to learn computer science

#60

Post by reactordev »

I want to call out something here. I’m all for learning to code at any age but companies need to stop being ageist and discriminatory towards older coders and workers.

I’ve started to see this myself. I’m certain it’s ageism.

To the OP, if you’re passionate about it, don’t let anyone/thing stand in your way.

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