I wouldn't. I'd learn a trade. Not to be facetious, I'm serious. I love programming. I never played video games, I spent my free time learning basic and then assembler in the late 80's. At the time, I was custom cabinet maker. I eventually become allergic to the 'smell' in oak, causing health problems. I had to give it up. I was busy 8 hours a day. I made decent money. Theirs a certain satisfaction at the end of the day and being able to point at something physical and say 'A good days work'. I began contract programming and eventually into full time employment.<p>Flash forward about 30 years. I'm still writing code professionally. I rarely write code for just enjoyment anymore. Those carpenters, cabinet makers, plumbers, electricians.. .trades people, make the same or more than I do. Their unionized. They can work practically anywhere and make the same amount of money. Not just in major cities. It doesn't see many radical shifts in technologies, unlike programming that is a life long learning because of advancing tech. Its VERY likely you will find your skill set obsolete without a real concerted effort of constantly upgrading. I wont even get into the culture which IMO is fostered by those writing the cheques and even your peers. Nor the moral issues that you will inevitably face - something few programmers ever talk about. It's a real kick in the happiness meter when something you write is designed solely to put many people out of work.<p>My opinion, my real opinion, is that if you find yourself writing code 'for fun' even if you don't know what your doing, pursue it. If your only in it for the career. Turn and run like hell. You'll be burnt out in 5 years and starting over.
I’d use an ide from day 1 instead of wasting time with vim.<p>I seriously dramatically slowed down my advancement as a programmer because I didn’t use a full featured ide straight up.<p>Now I only use vi to edit files in /etc
I'd just buy the book on the subject and leverage their respective web docs instead of watching lengthy videos of people talking about the thing.<p>Looking back at it, I regret not investing in quality books rather than some online subscription.
I don't code anymore (I'm more of a pointy-haired lower boss)...but what i wish i could go back in time and change around this is to have focused - I mean really, really focused - on 2 or 3 different programming languages only. Instead, what I've done over the years - again, when I coded as a dayjob - was to go shallow on far too many different languages (and ecosystems). I don't think it was me just chasing the "new thing" for the popularity of it. I genuinely was curious about, and wanted to learn "the new thing". The problem - as is often the case with tech - is that there's just too many "new things" coming out all the time...and one just can't keep up. So, sure, i feel like somewhat a jack-of-all-trades (and all my employers have benefited from it), but in more ways than i would like, i lack the depth - and possibly enjoyment/fulfillment - of being really awesome at one or very few things. That old adage about picking one (or a very, very few) thing(s) is no joke; and i see its wisdom only now (after working for 22 years professionally). If i could travel back in time (relative to programming), I'd tell my younger self 3 things:<p>1) Focus on depth of a couple of things, and never mind breadth.<p>2) As soon as possible - either before graduating college, or right after, etc. - work for yourself and not The Man. whether going into business as a solopreneur, or partnering with a few people - doesn't matter. Mistakes will be made, but you will feel more in control of any/all outcomes - good or bad.<p>3) Be generous for experiences, but be a cheap bastard when buying actual/material "things". Save shit tons of money.
I dont really agree with do not go to bootcamp advice. I think that structured supervised learning it can be very useful for those who are starting from very little knowledge. Knowing what is worth cloning/learning and what exactly to do with that clone or what exactly to learn is half the struggle for those who dont know much but have aptitude. Moreover, deadlines add motivation and prevent freeze from the thing not being perfect enough yet. Some bootcamps seemed to really push people to learn maximum during short time, so if it is not too expensive (money matters) then it might be really effective way to start.<p>I was able to come up with realistic own projects only after learning in sort of similar way - through structured organizations and from friends advice. Not everyone has friend advice. And having actual task someone will check adds motivation to finish it - finishing those own assigned projects that you are pretty positive are no useful to anyone is demotivating.
The number one thing I see in my students (I teach Scala, usually to already experienced developers) is they don't actively engage with the material. Write notes, or code up short examples, or draw pictures, or whatever works for you to actively think about what is being taught. This corresponds to "Write down what you learn" and "Build shitty stuff that works" in the linked article.<p>Bike shedding IDE or editors is a game everyone can play (use Spacemacs) but as long as the tools don't get in the way it's not very important at the start.
If I had to do it again? Avoid going down the operations path. Not because the knowledge wasn't valuable, but I always enjoyed working on bigger programming projects more than tinkering with other people's big programming projects (Linux, Ansible, AWS, Cisco, etc). Having operations on my resume, however, pigeon-holed me into a particular role professionally.<p>Of course, that's not of much use for anyone else. In fact, I'd recommend getting operations experience to more programmers, if only because we always need more people. But I also understand why more people don't aim to get operations experience.
I learned to program on my own then studied EE and hard sciences in school. Figured I already knew everything about programming. Hubris of my youth. I'd have taken more CS courses in college.