When I was much younger, I spent the majority of my time immersed in web technology and eating up any scrap of information available. But then something very, very tragic happened.<p>I learned about sales commissions.<p>I’m nearly 7 years deep into advertising sales with an excruciating year in pharmaceutical sales. I frequently find myself fantasizing about the ROI of “accidentally” cutting my finger off in an apple slicing accident in the break room so I can go home for the day and continue with my self-teaching of web development. Other days, I’ve painted an image in my mind where I survive a non-fatal traffic incident and due to my bodily injuries, I am limited to listening to books on tape – all of which would be about XHTML and the like -- while cocooned in a full body cast.<p>If I have to spend one more day prairie-dogging in sales cubicle hell, I am going to lose it.<p>In my spare time, I draw interesting websites I’d like to create and mobile apps that would make my life a billion times easier (perhaps yours, but that’s kind of a crapshoot bet, right?). Too many times, these plans have been executed by someone else either because I’m subconsciously a no-talent plagiarist or because maybe I actually have some great ideas but I have no idea where to even start to bring them to fruition.<p>So, Hacker News, if I want to develop these life-changing sites and mobile applications while simultaneously experiencing the Heaven-parting/angel singing/riding on a unicorn kind of joy of leaving sales at some point, where should I start? I’ll gladly do an unpaid internship outside of work hours, or maybe I should take evening classes at the local community college?<p>What would you do if you had to start all over again?<p>Your advice is greatly appreciated!