Things I wish I knew before I started making websites

> Programming is also a skill, but it’s not at all intuitive or tangible. Without guided learning, it’s impossible to even get started.

I have to disagree. Especially with web programming, it's surprisingly easy to get started. I know plenty of people who started out by just copying and pasting bits of html they found through 'view source'. Even when I had a basic grasp of html (through the "guided" learning of a 5-page tutorial), my first javascript was trying to change a counter on a snippet I'd copied from somewhere else on the web.

I realize that "you need a mentor" is a profitable piece of advice for a site that sells web development tutoring, but it's blatantly incorrect.

> Programming is also a skill, but it’s not at all intuitive or tangible. Without guided learning, it’s impossible to even get started.

That's total b.s. I taught myself programming in middle school by reading books.

I learnt to program by typing ? at a BBC BASIC prompt. Later on I found some manuals and after that magazines started appearing. Intuition is just experiences you haven't thought through yet. Not that I'm recommending this approach, it takes an unnecessary amount of time to build sufficient experience by trial and error.