Hello Kirupanouts!
Here’s a little story for you:
My brother told me the other day how much he hates his job, and how desperate he has become of finding a new one. A new career path even, with something totaly different from what he’s been doing so far (Able Seaman and Masonry Driller). He had noticed that we earn about the same after taxes, but I’m sitting in a well lit and warm office, with happy co-workers, browsing reddit all day, while he’s out in the cold with semi-criminal muppets, lifting heavy stuff and nearly getting killed from time to time (seriously, he almost got hit by a heavy-*** metal beam the other day, that would had killed him in 1 second flat if it wasn’t for some plastic wrapping that happened to get in the way, slowing it down just enough).
So, I thought about it, and came to the conclusion that he should learn programming. This is because I know he’s an incredibly intelligent person that can master pretty much anything he sets his mind to, and it’s relatively easy to get a job as a decent programmer, at least in the website and advertisement area. Also, both of us loves games and have always wanted to be part of some great game project some day, so I told him about my own plans for the future, with all my ideas I have about making games and starting a company. This got him really excited, and we talked for two hours straight about how awesome and possible it would be.
Now, he really wants to learn programming, but he needs some personal motivation. You know, that desire to know more. Now, don’t get me wrong, he’s got his mind set on the goal, but the starting phase is the problem. He’s never been fond of math, for example, but he doesn’t really hate it. All he needs is a way to see programming the same way I do nowadays. I love it. It’s so wonderful and fantastic, and I’m always looking forward to learn more and to be better. You know what I’m talking about, right?
So, for him, programming is just some arcane mess at the moment, associated with long “boring” texts and abstract concepts. He’s smart enough to recognize his perspective as a just a beginner’s illusion though, and hopes things will pick up at some point, once you get past some of the initial learning obstacles.
We’ve already had a few lessons, where I taught him the basics of what programming really is and how it works. He understands variables, arrays, objects, data types, functions, loops, conditional statements, events and even the basics of classes already.
The problem now is how to get him inspired enough to become self-motivated and eager to learn more on his own. I know that will probably come soon enough, because programming is awesome, and you just need to find a project that is exciting enough, i.e. just above his current skill level and practically useful in some way.
Question:
Now, I’m just curious, when did you first experience that initial spark of excitement towards programming? What got you hooked? When did you fall in love with learning more of it? What was your first really fun project? (For me, it was when I first realised that I could make my own games, just like my favorite ones on the SNES. That was a real epiphany for me).
/ Frank
