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Re:To Learn Programming, Do Projects You Care About by bloomca on Tuesday November 15, 2016 @10:54AM (#12959033)
This is actually true only to some degree. Of course, you can't create your own full-fledge game, but in terms of automation you can do a lot. You like to listen to certain radio, but it has shitty interface? Build site/app/etc to address it! Yes, it will be small and won't do anything else, but for you it will be helpful, so you will do it with passion.

The same applies for other "utility" stuff – you can create your own flashcards service, which will be super convenient exactly for you, and so forth. So, don't underestimate yourself – software often is good only to some use-cases, not for yours.

Re:To Learn Programming, Do Projects You Care About by adrianN on Tuesday November 15, 2016 @11:01AM (#12959121)
My usecases are typical enough that I don't encounter things that I could improve, or if I do I would have to replicate a lot of the stuff surrounding that particular minor annoyance. That would usually require man-years of work.
Re:To Learn Programming, Do Projects You Care About by fergyfresh on Tuesday November 15, 2016 @11:50AM (#12959725)
Excuses are the nails that build the bridge to failure.
Re:To Learn Programming, Do Projects You Care About by rpazyaquian on Wednesday November 16, 2016 @09:53AM (#12967332)
I dunno, man, there's only so much tech can do. There's not much an app or CLI can do for the economy or civil rights legislature, for example, and those are the two biggest problems for me.