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Comment by Fliko | Hacker News Reader

No, it isn't a puff piece, he's not going on about how awesome he is, he is just saying "Hey look, you can get a entry job programming without learning how to program for 4 years.", and then goes on to say how he does it. If he spent all of his time documenting everything so you could be satisfied then he wouldn't of turned up where he was, and in no way was he actually planning on writing that blog post until tons of people on Hacker News started messaging him after he mentioned it in a post.

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He spent a substantial amount of time talking about his motivation to become a programmer. The other jobs he worked at, etc. Then once it comes to how he actually did it, he drops the ball and misses a great opportunity to tell an interesting story. I don't think anyone is asking for a day-by-day or hour-by-hour recap, or a step-by-step tutorial, but he could have done a much better job with adding some more substance there. I actually liked a lot of the article, but I thought it was a missed opportunity overall.

Ahh I misread into your post. Yeah, the article wasn't well written and could've gone into more detail about different things but honestly I feel that an experienced programmer would know a better route for someone to take, for example I know a lot of programmers suggest people start with SICP.

Starting someone who has no programming experience with SICP is idiotic.

The book was written for an introductory programming course at MIT. It is more rigorous of a book then most and may not be for everyone starting programming, but the right people will seek it out. It is also invaluable in that it teaches the programmer about programming more then languages.

Exactly -- the right people will seek it out.

Seeking things out doesn't just mean you read these things on articles or stumble upon them in libraries, it can also detail things like conversations with other people. Either way it is just an example that a guru might have a path that someone can follow that will get them somewhere quicker then a non-guru.

You're misunderstanding. I disagree with your fundamental premise, which seems to me to be that SICP will take someone from zero to hero quicker than more accessible methods.

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