I worked at Amazon to see if anything's changed

Re:I worked at Amazon to see if anything's changed by afarrell on Tuesday December 29, 2015 @01:44PM (#10808287)

To emphasize mentat's point, you need focused time where your mind is rested and alert. This requires good, regularly-scheduled sleep. This requires nutritionally complete food (though soylent has made this much easier). This probably requires that you not be stressed out by fear of violence or eviction.

Also, don't underestimate the value of an educational environment. You can spend a lot of time banging your head against the wall if you don't have an effective way to reach out for help. A mailing list or IRC channel is only useful if you have the skill and focus to compose your question coherently.

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Re:I worked at Amazon to see if anything's changed by xiaoma on Wednesday December 30, 2015 @05:49AM (#10811585)

I mostly lived off of cornflakes, coconut water, occasional fruits and a weekly chicken binge (or other food from a Chinese butcher shop) when I was becoming a programmer. It took very little time and cost less than a third of what Soylent does.

I used a book called Learn to program, by Chris Pine. There's a free version online. After that, I did some stuff on code school.

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Re:I worked at Amazon to see if anything's changed by mahyarm on Tuesday December 29, 2015 @02:01PM (#10808372)

All the same applies to any job that requires formal education. A rested mind, good enough food, free time, a safe environment and so on.

There are also people who do not do well at all in an educational environment, and the lack of one is a benefit towards learning programming for them.

All that most people are saying is the barriers to becoming a software developer vs. other professions are lower and cheaper than most others. There are still barriers and challenges, just like everything else in improving one's life.

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