Being honest with myself: my journey to learning how to code

This is more or less my story as well.<p>I graduated from college with a philosophy degree and took a job in marketing. That job wasn't really marketing, despite the title, and I ended up spearheading a digital marketing effort that was 95% technical project management. That was the point when I realized I wanted to be the person <i>making</i> the products, not managing the people making them.<p>So I did everything I could to get closer to the technology. I quit my job in the non-profit sector and moved to Chicago, took a job as a project manager at a technology/marketing company, learned QA processes, taught myself python over 12 months, built some scripts to automate tedious parts of my job, and eventually got a job in Automated QA.<p>Now I'm an engineer in SF Bay Area at a startup. And yes, every day I go home and realize that my brain is wrung out, my mind is exhausted, and I am totally happy with it.

I'm currently learning how to code. The biggest problem that I consistently have is <i>getting the damn thing to work.</i> I'm about halfway through the Hartl Rails Tutorial, and moving at a snails pace because I have to google error messages every five minutes.<p>I end up spending hours changing permissions, re-installing packages, and poring over StackOverflow posts. I get that real-life software development is very similar, but I'd really just like to build something.<p>Coding isn't all that hard (in my experience). It's the tangential stuff that makes it hard, and as a result, turns people off from learning.

Good story. I did my undergrad in history and came out wanting to do something else.<p>I spent a year on help desk, two years as a system and network administrator (skills I acquired by studying while I was on help desk) then I transitioned to development (which I studied for while doing admin) and now I lead my own projects. Like other have mentioned, it's all about dedication, tenacity, and passion.<p>However, I don't want to overlook the importance of the people along the way who took a chance on me. Those people were just as important to me being able to continue down this career path as the my own efforts.

A lot of my friends have the opposite problem. They're in college in order to learn programming so they can make games, but they seem too content with enjoying other people's games to realize how satisfying it can be to actually create your own.

I am interested in what you found to be the most effective learning tool or tools along your path. How did going through the rails book compare to the learning experiences on the job? Did you consider one of the many bootcamps, online programs, or other more structured learning?

Great post - I did the same thing, and 2 years on, best decision I've ever made. It takes time but the main thing is to take the plunge and stick with it. Great job!

Bravo!