>Were there any interesting ah-ha moments?

Yes, all of them. I have them every day. Today's was Solr's facet.limit/.prefix/.mincount methods as it relates to what I'm working on. Nothing stands out because it was a huge bolus of information.

>What would he do differently?

Nothing.

>What guidelines would he give to someone else in a similar position?

http://mattdeboard.net/2011/11/23/how-i-became-a-programmer/

>How did he find an appropriate mentor?

I was lucky. I answered this both in the comments and in this thread.

>What was he surprised to learn?

The level of apathy among a lot of programmers.

>What can he do now that he couldn't do when he started?

I can program now, so there's that.

You think it's hand-wavy because you think I'm holding something back. I busted my ass dude, I worked very hard. That's not hand-wavy, that's just really what happened. I taught myself a lot of shit by reading, asking questions and trying new stuff. There's no mystery or secret sauce.

I think you're misinterpreting my comment. I actually liked the article. I was simply explaining some of the reasons some people may have viewed it negatively. You could have done a better job of explaining the process. It's basically a black-box where you go in, work hard for 12 weeks, and then you're a programmer. You're missing a real opportunity to share (what could be) a better story.

What did you actually program though? That's all I want to know. What did you build and how did you decide what to build? How small did you start? What was the biggest project you undertook before you got hired?

It's all on github, that's why I linked to it in the post.

No, it isn't a puff piece, he's not going on about how awesome he is, he is just saying "Hey look, you can get a entry job programming without learning how to program for 4 years.", and then goes on to say how he does it. If he spent all of his time documenting everything so you could be satisfied then he wouldn't of turned up where he was, and in no way was he actually planning on writing that blog post until tons of people on Hacker News started messaging him after he mentioned it in a post.

He spent a substantial amount of time talking about his motivation to become a programmer. The other jobs he worked at, etc. Then once it comes to how he actually did it, he drops the ball and misses a great opportunity to tell an interesting story. I don't think anyone is asking for a day-by-day or hour-by-hour recap, or a step-by-step tutorial, but he could have done a much better job with adding some more substance there. I actually liked a lot of the article, but I thought it was a missed opportunity overall.

Ahh I misread into your post. Yeah, the article wasn't well written and could've gone into more detail about different things but honestly I feel that an experienced programmer would know a better route for someone to take, for example I know a lot of programmers suggest people start with SICP.

Starting someone who has no programming experience with SICP is idiotic.

The book was written for an introductory programming course at MIT. It is more rigorous of a book then most and may not be for everyone starting programming, but the right people will seek it out. It is also invaluable in that it teaches the programmer about programming more then languages.

Exactly -- the right people will seek it out.

Seeking things out doesn't just mean you read these things on articles or stumble upon them in libraries, it can also detail things like conversations with other people. Either way it is just an example that a guru might have a path that someone can follow that will get them somewhere quicker then a non-guru.

You're misunderstanding. I disagree with your fundamental premise, which seems to me to be that SICP will take someone from zero to hero quicker than more accessible methods.

My blog has comments. My email address is in my HN profile. If you wanted more information you could've asked instead of insulting me.

I don't think he was trying to be insulting. From what I gather, he was trying to justify the negativity theme in the comments for this post, which was the subject of the original comment. I agree that the blog post was not detailed enough, and didn't talk enough about HOW you became a programmer in 12 weeks.

What kind of information do you mean? I programmed, asked questions, programmed, read source code, and programmed. There's zero magic. I learned in the same way all human beings learn.

We're knowledge workers. I gained enough programming knowledge to be a programmer. Where's the confusion?

Being a programmer myself, this is a bit theoretical but I think if I wasn't and I sat down to read an article names "How I became a Programmer", I would expect a couple of pointers to where to start, what to do and how to do it.

Besides from the point about learning a language rather than a framework, your post mostly says "It took me 12 week to learn programming" and that the way to do it is the obvious: read stuff, try stuff etc.

There is nothing wrong with this of course, but given the headline, especially here on HN, I can see why some might feel that they didn't quite get their money's worth.

Judging by the huge volume of emails and comments on the blog, retweets and all that good stuff the article generated, I feel pretty good about the article

Where's the content?

Did you read the article?

Try separating yourself from the content for a moment and you'll see he isn't insulting you, but finding holes in your work.

One thing you'll notice here is that the community is very blunt, and often comes across as rude, but as a new hacker myself I've grown to appreciate the honesty.

Buddy I was a Marine for over ten years and spent years in combat zones. There is a difference between bluntness/honesty and disrespect/rudeness, and I am well acquainted with what that line looks like.

And I was an Army Soldier in Afghanistan. That has nothing to do with any of this. It's clear your feathers are easily ruffled. I'd work on that.

"it's essentially a puff piece" Sounds pretty insulting to me.