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- Advice From An Old Programmer
- =============================
- You have finished this book and have decided to continue with programming. Maybe it will be a career for you, or
- maybe it will be a hobby. You will need some advice to make sure you continue on the right path, and get the most
- enjoyment out of your newly chosen hobby.
- I have been programming for a very long time. So long that it is incredibly boring to me. At the time that I wrote this
- book I knew about 20 programming languages and could learn new ones in about a day to a week depending on how
- weird they were. Eventually though this just became boring and couldn’t hold my interest.
- What I discovered after this journey of learning is that the languages did not matter, it’s what you do with them.
- Actually, I always knew that, but I’d get distracted by the languages and forget it periodically. Now I never forget it,
- and neither should you.
- Which programming language you learn and use does not matter. Do not get sucked into the religion surrounding
- programing languages as that will only blind you to their true purpose of being your tool for doing interesting things.
- Programming as an intellectual activity is the only art form that allows you to create interactive art. You can create
- projects that other people can play with, and you can talk to them indirectly. No other art form is quite this interactive.
- Movies flow to the audience in one direction. Paintings do not move. Code goes both ways.
- Programming as a profession is only moderately interesting. It can be a good job, but if you want to make about the
- same money and be happier, you could actually just go run a fast food joint. You are much better off using code as
- your secret weapon in another profession.
- People who can code in the world of technology companies are a dime a dozen and get no respect. People who can
- code in biology, medicine, government, sociology, physics, history, and mathematics are respected and can do amazing
- things to advance those disciplines.
- Of course, all of this advice is pointless. If you liked learning to write software with this book, you should try to use
- it to improve your life any way you can. Go out and explore this weird wonderful new intellectual pursuit that barely
- anyone in the last 50 years has been able to explore. Might as well enjoy it while you can.
- Finally, I will say that learning to create software changes you and makes you different. Not better or worse, just
- different. You may find that people treat you harshly because you can create software, maybe using words like “nerd”.
- Maybe you will find that because you can dissect their logic that they hate arguing with you. You may even find that
- simply knowing how a computer works makes you annoying and weird to them.
- To this I have one just piece of advice: they can go to hell. The world needs more weird people who know how things
- work and who love to figure it all out. When they treat you like this, just remember that this is your journey, not theirs.
- Being different is not a crime, and people who tell you it is are just jealous that you have picked up a skill they never
- in their wildest dreams could acquire.
- You can code. They cannot. That is pretty damn cool.
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