5 Programming Revelations: I Wish I Had Known from the Start

[@GavinFreeborn]

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[@SimGunther]

TODO comments = prime to mark learning opportunities you want to explore at the low level, but don't want to formalize in a task board program. Eventually you'll have to actually LEARN and not endlessly put off the task forever, but knowing what's getting you mega gains on the project and what gets you tiny wins that might take a while to get matters so much through the lifetime of any project.

[@boots7859]

For a lot of people over 30, it is NOT hard to get into the field at all. Figure out a language you like, learn on your own first and then do some of the different online academys which run specials all the time for $10-30. Really helpful if you can take some community college classes as they look better on the CV. While a lot of cutting edge companies are only interested in young, 'hip' folks, the secret is that its primarily because they can pay them less. So many companies need employees that actually want to come in to work vs personalized work from home, getting into non-business related discussion, and on and on. You might end up being offered an entry-level that pays 50-60K, however if you can stick with it a year and get that mile marker under your belt, you should be able to jump to another position elsewhere for more than your annual review will offer. It really isn't Master in Math, rocket science or eureka-like moments of coding insights. Its having a good grasp of your language, and familiarity with how a whole class of problems are generally best attacked.

[@gjermundification]

Started at age 8, now 40 years later unlearning is a thing, and it's not easy. Meetups are good!

[@uh2535]

Thanks, great stuff! Some thoughts - I really liked your POV that learning is not linear - exactly - I learned a lot, but so much of it has gone in the pipes of history ... and I have to learn again and again and again. And if somebody joins now - he must learn the principles and then jump directly in the stuff that I am learning now and after some short time we are in the same level just like that. Another thought about feedback. It also is not linear. If you are a newcomer then every feedback will be with positive value for you, but if you already have some 30 years of experience then 95% of the feedback will turn out how you explain the feedback giver why his/her feedback is wrong - so to help them grow. And about abstractions - yes, I agree, that most of the time you have to learn to distance yourself from whole system, but - if there is a change to be made in a system that works for 10 years and is supposed to work for some another years, you can't just abstract from the understanding of whole code and irresponsibly make changes which even pass your initial tests ... the issues can arise even at such moments of system work as - change of month, change of year, change of state rules, change of ... you name it - so, for mission critical systems you have to dig till the deepest point and understand the system how it works, will your changes affect it and only then make the changes you have decided to do. And finally - the greatest mistake for newcomers - that feel that "I understood! That's easy! Tomorrow I will provide the complete application!" which makes your next days, weeks in a nightmare as you have not even imagined how the stuff will work in its completeness and issues start to arise. And they usually arise linearly :D Once more - thank you for your video! I just added my five cents. And about your Emacs videos - hat off from me :) Cheers!

[@c1dk1n]

"one of my favorite viewers" *Heisenberg* Yer goddamn right.

[@MENTOKz]

thanks gavin

[@ebn__]

Especially me pog

[@eesaaphilips9271]

oh it's ebn