Re: To an Unknown Blogger (2)
Read the previous reply in this email conversation.
Hi Kevin,
Thanks for your reply. I can imagine that getting a personal response from someone leads to more accountability than a public blog post. Someone only sends a personal reply if they care about the conversation, and I think we both do. At the same time, it's up to both of us to decide when the conversation ends, but I'd be totally fine to resume for a while.
As for computer science and how I got into it, I guess that has been a long, unconscious process. I've been using computers since I was probably four or five years old. The earliest memory I have of playing games on the computer was Theme Park World, the legendary theme park creator game from Bullfrog. I remember spending days and days in my own creations and even reading the game manual night after night in bed (when games would still come with nice little booklets). I would immerse myself completely in it, feeling like this was the best thing in the world.
Later, Theme Park World evolved into Rollercoaster Tycoon and playing multiplayer games like Age of Empires and Halo with neighborhood friends. I'm not sure what your age is, but we would go on MSN to see if there was any interest to fire up a new duel on our cracked Age of Empires or to run to that single person where we could play Halo on a four-player split-screen. Those games probably got me interested in technology, and I probably got a book about computer programming from my parents, with a message like "how about you start creating on the computer instead of only consuming?". And I liked that. I liked to build my own computer programs with the help of those books, tinkering away. At some point in high school, things clicked when I thought: "Why not study computer science if I seem to be so interested in it?". And that's what happened.
Now, you do not need to study computer science to become a programmer. What you should do is write code. Any code, really. You can follow a tutorial to set up a simple website with HTML, CSS and some JavaScript. You can follow a tutorial to build your first Python program. You can dive into game development if you feel like it. But in the end, you just need to program a lot. You need to start thinking like a computer. Then, at some moment, things click, and any new programming language is just a matter of getting to know the syntax. A formal computer science study helps in a way that it forces you to live in that world 24/7, assisting this need to just practice. What matters more to employers though is your portfolio and what you've done in the past, whether you have a computer science-related diploma or not. At least, that's my experience.
Good to see that you're thinking about reading Tom's book. I hope you like it and that it helps you. And about replying back: do it when you feel like it. Do it when you read the book. Again, whether that's today, or tomorrow, or somewhat later.
Best,
Yordi