Teach yourself programming in ten years

[btiffin]

http://norvig.com/21-days.html

[Mackie]

Nice, thats a lot better then the 7 day approach.

[wtd]

I have been programming for about 10 years. I am not inclined to disagree with the general premise.

[A.J]

Well short term learning helps too.... (I've been doing programming for about 6.5 months now)

[michaelp]

I've been programming for about 7-8 months, and I feel I'm not too too bad at C++. But there probably still is lots I don't know about the language and libraries of it, considering there is so much to learn.

[btiffin]

A.J @ Tue Apr 15, 2008 6:38 pm wrote:

Well short term learning helps too.... (I've been doing programming for about 6.5 months now)

A.J I agree ... but ... the point of the article is
quoted from http://norvig.com/21-days.html
The conclusion is that either people are in a big rush to learn about computers, or that computers are somehow fabulously easier to learn than anything else. There are no books on how to learn Beethoven, or Quantum Physics, or even Dog Grooming in a few days.

The author is highlighting a slippery, yet entrenched, trend. Basic syntax? most coders will have a good grasp after writing "Hello World", but to learn something, takes time, effort and experience. I took a perl job after writing "Hello World", and "knowing" that $ is for scalars, @ is for arrays and % is for hash, but I didn't know. Had to scramble to meet the first deadline. And I scored the highest mark on the pre-employment test.

20 years of Forth will do that to you ... an improper sense of "knowing". I've been full time REBOL for a little over a year now. Haven't got a clue. It's why I've been writing Tutorials, if you really want to learn something, try and teach someone else. Even better, try and teach someone without looking at any docs.

I think the only other area we humans expect such short turn around learning time is Driving. When I was 16 you could write the written part and sign up for the driving test the very same day. Insurance companies know this; rates don't start to drop until quite a few years have passed.

Not to say that "a language a day" is not a fun hobby, just that it is dangerous to write any critical medical equipment or air traffic control system after reading a 21-days to C++ book.

Cheers