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Comment by nzmsv | Hacker News Reader

Here's a demotivational post :) No one says it's not possible to learn programming this way. In fact, I'm sure almost everyone here has a similar story (mine even includes the paper programming). What I wish I found out earlier than I did is that no one finds this impressive.

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Compared to what most of the kids his age were probably doing? I'm impressed.

I'd actually go so far as to say that anyone not impressed either doesn't understand what he did, or has a badly miscalibrated scale of what counts as impressive.

I still have the 3-ring binder containing, among other early projects, my first BASIC program written for my Timex Sinclair 1000. I was also oblivious to some of the basic structures of BASIC so there's a ton of repetition. It's fun to go back and look at some of my notes and scribbles from over 20 years ago. Fun for me, boring as hell for anyone else.

How many people in life find their calling and create it completely by their own hands? We are in one of the unique fields where don't need a degree to make a good living. Yes, many of us are self-starters, but if this post inspires one kid to join the fold, I think it's worth front-page HN.

ok, so it's true i wasn't impressed, but it did bring a smile to my face, reminding me of my own "similar story" (no girlfriend, back then, and the person i knew who had a zx81 refused to type in my wonderful handwritten code :o)

so just because it's not impressive doesn't mean it can't be appreciated (also, are you serious about your final remark? - i knew way before then that being smart wasn't something to "show off")

Yeah, I didn't read that post as being meant to impress necessarily, just motivate. So, the fact that lots of people start early is even more motivating for those who have been told it's too hard.

I wrote assembler code for my HP48 on paper well before I typed it into the device when I was doing anything remotely complex.

I wonder if I'm missing anything by starting in a text editor these days...

You actually had a much simpler problem back then. For most domains, programming involves dealing with more complicated languages, machines, and APIs.

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