[Computing is] a place where you don’t have to be a Ph.D. or anything else. It’s a place where you can still be an artisan. People are willing to pay you if you’re any good at all, and you have plenty of time for screwing around.
You’re reading Signal v. Noise, a publication about the web by Basecamp since 1999. Happy !
[Computing is] a place where you don’t have to be a Ph.D. or anything else. It’s a place where you can still be an artisan. People are willing to pay you if you’re any good at all, and you have plenty of time for screwing around.
Armaghan Saqib
on 15 Feb 10I have never been to any formal/informal CS course. Learned everything from books (and, for last 10 years, from Internet).
Started a small business hosting, supporting, customizing an open source account/ERP solution and doing great. No one has yet asked about my educational credentials.
David Andersen
on 15 Feb 10Still true today. But also true of other professions as well.
Paul
on 15 Feb 10This is very true. But I would say it is pretty much the case with any discipline in which the tools are readily available at home.
For example, many top chefs/cooks start out learning to cook at home. All the tools you need can be bought on the high-street, and you can learn everything from books/online and through trying it out.
I did do a degree, but I started out programming when I was 8 because we had a ZX Spectrum at home. The degree didn’t make me a programmer, but it fleshed out and expanded what I knew, and gave me a more formal and lower level understanding of a lot of what I was already doing. If you go down the learning from books route, do yourself a favour and read at least a couple of more theoretical ones, don’t just focus on the “How to Programme in Foo” ones.
I sometimes wonder if, had I had access to the equipment at home, I might have gone into a different industry. I think a lot of people get into software because they like to create things, and software is a medium which allows them to do just that without needing a lot of space, or expensive materials, just a laptop.
I’d love to do more woodwork, but I live in a small flat so I have to make do with creating virtual things, building websites and the like. That can be very fulfilling, especially when they really start to take off.
greatquote
on 16 Feb 10This ia a great quote. Do you know when/where he said it?
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