Nobody told me it’s impossible, so I did it

Here's a demotivational post :) No one says it's not possible to learn programming this way. In fact, I'm sure almost everyone here has a similar story (mine even includes the paper programming). What I wish I found out earlier than I did is that no one finds this impressive.

Guys, I didn't write that story to show off. Sorry if it comes out this way. Of course tons of people here did much more impressive things. I see a lot of people who want to do something like start a business or change career and they get discouraged by everyone saying it's hard and not worth doing. I just wanted to motivate them and tell them that it doesn't matter what others are saying.<p>And I had a girlfriend at 14 who by the end of high school messed me so much that I spent first 2 years in college avoiding girls completely. But that's not a Hacker News story ;)

"It was great! I could put GOTO on an empty line and write additional code on a separate piece of paper. I know all programmers are laughing reading this, but I was happy that I didn't have to squeeze several lines of code into one line in the notepad anymore!"<p>That reminds me of line numbers, counting by 10s, and then using line 15 if you needed to put something in between 10 and 20. I am just glad I discovered gosub before goto.

The smileys are distracting. I am not against them in principle, I think they can add a layer of emotion above that conveyed purely by the words (I think of it as an internet form of prosody); however, in this case they are over-used and distract from the overall quality of the post.

Well, it certainly isn't impossible. As a matter of fact, I'd argue the opposite - that it's impossible to really learn anything without being inspired and motivated. I know the only times I've <i>really</i> learned things is during bouts of excitement, and the smartest people I know just get excited very easily :)<p>Sure, some people go through learning motivated by impressing their peers or satisfying their parents/teachers/bosses. But they're not really learning in the true way, now are they?

If batch programming had not existed long before, he would have reinvented it. :-)<p>Heck, my first exposure to programming was by way of a textbook that used a nonexistant decimal machine's assembler; presumably I could have submitted my code to a simulator had I been attending the right college, but I was only in seventh grade at the time.<p>Show of hands: who <i>hasn't</i> ever played computer with their code?

I stopped reading when he mentioned that he had a girlfriend when he was 14. Was there anything else he did that was remarkable? ;)

I started in BASIC on a Sharp MZ-700 (a horrible machine) but in 1988 I got a Commodore 64 as a gift, along with a book (Programming the 6502) and got to grips with assembly after a christmas present: a freezer cartridge and a floppy disk drive. It was the best christmas present ever.<p>Further on, my C64 interest became an obsession and I dropped out of school - though passing some exams - and even led to me hacking PBX's and blue boxing across the USA (I live in the UK). But again - I don't regret any of it!