fylox
Another book which is rather on the extreme side is Eckart Tolle's "The Power of now!". Again, I sometimes couldn't stand his opinion. For example whenever he quotes Jesus and explains that most people get it wrong but in fact it would be like this or that.
But the book showed me that I was worrying and thinking way too much and that this is at best useless and sometimes even dangerous.
Often books don't even tell you something new. And I think even this is worthwhile as long as the author explains what you already know in a very different way.
I partly relearned this skill when I started out with Taekwondo. Desperately, I was trying to memorize the motion sequences. Whenever I asked a question concerning which angle my right leg should have, which direction I should turn to ... the master would always say: "Don't think or talk. Watch & do it!"
Surprisingly, you get a lot better in no time. Don't get me wrong I still suck but at least what I do now is worlds apart from my first humble attempts.
Now I think that I could become a decent programmer with a more child-like attitude (like the one I had when I discovered DOS & Win 3.11 at the age of 5 - no adult taught me anything, I couldn't even understand the English menus ;-))
But unfortunately we get older. Whilst it is never too late to learn something for the joy of it I'd like to have a halfway-decent paid job within the next 10 years. At the moment I am 23. I could quit university, devote myself to open source software & hack the hell out of the day. Hopefully, I'll someday know enough to have paid work. However, if I'd fail I wouldn't even have a degree & my perspectives would be quite bleak. With that in mind programming is only a (way too little) hobby for me.
I've been into electronic music production & sounddesign for about 8 years now. But I never saw a way that this could somehow be helpful when it comes to finding a job.
Two terms of CS gave me some insight into programming but I mainly solved little mathematical problems rather than gaining insight into "real world software programming".
Now I am attending business school and try to figure out how to avoid a typical office job so that I can do something more rewarding, where I can be somewhat more myself, instead.
I should seriously get into programming in my spare time...
Sorry to everyone else for hijacking this thread. ;-)
€: just finished the video. Looks like an awesome working atmosphere indeed!
Although I am not qualified enough for such a position I am curious what requirements they have. I check your link and they ask for at least 2 years of experience. Is that "all" ?
As a CS drop out I can't even provide bachelor's degree. The point I am trying to make is: As far as I know here in Germany employees always ask for degrees. Am I way off?
Could I train myself the necessary skills and then work my way up and then some day I'd be qualified enough to work for a company like Ableton?
This: "OhLife is private, secure, & friendlier than Ned Flanders. Only you can see your entries. " is pretty brilliant indeed :-D
Feedbackroulette could be reduced to reddit.com/r/feedbackroulette (imho)
By the way, I found the "one fear gets replaced by a bigger fear" theory very interesting. It's a very logical explanation but I never consciously thought about it.
In this case, even though it isn't fun and sometimes very painful, I'd suggest a brute-force approach. Try as many ways as possible and discard all the drafts & don't feel bad about it.
I have to confess that I, too, spend too much time on those websites. My conclusion is: I was a better "lifehacker" when I was 16 (quite some years ago).