comatory

oh maybe I wasn't clear enough about the price. I am willing to pay for quality software I just wasn't sure what the prices are. if you're saying it's totally worth the price then I'm good with it.

just a note: not everyone is from western world, 40 bucks can mean a way more money to someone say in India etc.

Wow thanks for all the input. I already decided I want to do this. What do you think of Python Group meetups? What are they like?

Yep that's kind of my deal too. I don't like testing at all but I accept it as a part of the job. What draws me to programming is the creativity and building things. I know that most IT jobs aren't really creative but the experience you gather is great and I can always code in my free time. I really enjoy it so most of the time when I'm learning new stuff, it's fun to me.

Read your whole answer, thanks. I decided I'm gonna go for it no matter what.

Just to clear things out: I already did Learn Python The Hard Way all the way through and I think I understood like 90 percent of it (the last two exercises were a bit too much for me).

For now, I think I could focus on web development since I can setup Wordpress blogs or static pages and tweak CSS. My goal would be to become mobile app programmer/embedded programmer. So I thought about learning Swift - it's new I know but it feels a bit like Python.

I want to treat my self-teaching as something serious - set aside at least 10h weekly which I think I can do. It's just sad feeling for me ... new city, totally new job. But you all are encouraging while also setting real expectations = I'm determined to do this.

I will try to figure this out without CS degree. Taking a year off of work just to learn programming is something I might be able to do financially, I can just move out of Canada back home where it's 5x less expensive or to South East Asia where it's even less to focus on this.

I think the reason why I fear this is because I have no connection to other programmers. I am not shy, actually quite opposite, I have "cool" hobbies (film making, bmx bikes, music) but smart people are kind of intimidating, even more so when I'd like to discuss my projects with them.

Anyway, so far I programmed this little CLI utility (just to paint you a picture how "far" I've come from non-programming to newbie since Jan) -> https://pypi.python.org/pypi?name=flashCardStudy&version=1.0...

Anyway I want to thank everyone for their input. I discussed how frustrated I am with my life with my girlfriend and she totally supports me - she'd be willing to push me through school = universities are "free" (paid from taxes) in my country so I just need money for rent and food. We have CS programmes where you obtain bachelor degree in three years but it's heavily connected to math which I kinda suck at. We'll see.

Wow! Hats off to you.. You know hearing stories like that make me feel more determined than ever.