Here are some “random” thoughts on being a software programmer……

• What does it take to become a professional programmer?
• What are some of the things that hold new programmers back?
• Passion is very important.
• To be a programmer it takes focus (and don’t try to learn every programming language)
• You need a “chunk of time” that’s uninterrupted (several hours) to really be productive
• So you need to be willing and able to sit and stare at a computer screen for hours
• Program at least three times a week, preferably more
• You don’t need to be smart and you don’t need a university degree!

YouTube Videos

Five reasons why you are not becoming a programmer by Andy Sterkowitz. The first of the five points of Andy is the “now” part of this website. Andy says don’t be the person that waits 6 months before beginning to write something. Andy says you can begin coding within you first week. You can begin coding “now”.

Here is another video by Andy Sterkowitz called Teaching yourself to learn programming? Start Here!. If you are now to programming and want to get started right away, and you are willing to take some advice, Andy suggests, in this video, the following technologies:

1. HTML & CSS
2. JavaScript
3. Git
4. Client-Server Architecture

Andy likes the Head First series of books for HTML and CSS as well as JavaScript. He suggests spending about 3 months or so on the above four technologies, with the focus being mostly on JavaScript. After doing this, you can decide if you really want to be a programmer.

Here is a third video by Andy. It’s called How long to become a software developer?

Biggest Self-Taught Programmer Mistakes.

1. Set a hard date as to when you’ll start applying for jobs for your new career, then work backward to execute your “plan”
2. Have a clear game plan (road map/objective), you can start with a vague, “not perfect” game plan, but have a plan and iterate over it as you go
3. Track your progress against the goals you’ve set in your plan. Track Sleep/Study time(active vs Passive) / Exercise etc. Make adjustments as you go
4. Focus on task at hand (this is where your Plan comes in) Don’t fret about things down the road. Knock down the problem at hand and the big picture will get clearer as you go.

Here is a video by Mosh Hamedani at YouTbe called How to Learn to Code and Make $60k+ a Year.

Future of Programming – by Bob Martin

Check out the YouTube video called “Uncle” Bob Martin – “The Future of Programming”. He talks about the history of computer programming and what it is to be a professional programmer. He says that programmers need to better define the profession of programming and define our practices and disciplines. We need to re-unify Agile. Right now it is split into two separate groups: the business (project management) side and the craft (programmers’ technical practices) side. The business side now dominates the movement and focuses on: Kanban, lean and so on.

Expecting Professionalism (Kuppelsalen, Copenhagen)

This is a talk by “Uncle” Bob Martin that you can watch on YouTube.

The One Skull Rule: “The most valuable asset in the software industry is the synthesis of programming skill and deep context in the business problem domain, in one skull.” – Jesse Watson. Another quote from Jesse’s LinkedIn article: “software requirements rarely change; what changes is our awareness of them, and our grasp of their implications.” Sometimes Agile people blame the changing requirements, but really they need to blame themselves for not fully understanding the business domain (business rules/how the business really works). He also says:”The greatest misconception about software development is that it is a separable discipline from deep analysis of the business problem.”