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Comment by puranjay | Hacker News Reader

I have the same issue. I've set aside 10pm-2am every weekday to learn how to code, plus entire Saturdays and Sunday mornings. I can, at most, manage 20-25 hours, usually when I'm already bogged down.

I've been toying with the idea of quitting everything and going all-in for 3-6 months.

Would that be 100% retarded or just about 70% retarded?

I can live with 70%.

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I had the option to quit to work on learning to code for 3-6 months and I chose to bite the bullet and stay employed. I woke up at 4am to get in a few hours of coding before work and kept my working hours to a minimum so I could have a few hours after work to code. Weekends were 12+ hours of coding both days. It doesn't leave a lot of room for social life or other activities, but the job search was a lot less stressful knowing I still had a paycheck coming in instead of burning through my savings. YMMV!

You'll want to account for this all-in time on your resume. (Unemployment gaps are a red flag to companies.) You could put together a company of your own, for example, and frame all your study time as product/service development.

>Would that be 100% retarded or just about 70% retarded?

I'll go with "less than 70%". Or at least I hope, because that's what I did.

Coming from a Economics background (with a minor in Statistics), I took a job as a "data analyst" at a software company out of University. It was fun, but I relied on working with a programmer to get even basic things done.

Then came the "Data Science" wave. I thought, this is right up my alley! Except I needed to learn to program. I tried doing the tutorials and academies online, but was continuously stuck in the hand-holding stage. So I did the opposite of what is often recommended around here: I quit my job and enrolled in a 2 year Computer Programming course at a college. I'll be finishing up this spring. The enforced, formal structure and discipline has been a boon.

I feel great about having done it. I still feel pretty green, but I'm probably somewhere in the middle of the "desert" now. I credit school with having got me that far.

You'd be an excellent candidate to get a lot out of a coding bootcamp. If you have like $10k in savings or money you can borrow, you'd be in an excellent position to try something like that.

PM me if you'd like to talk about my experience with one.

If you are in a position to quit, I'd put it at 0%.

It depends. What are your goals, what is it you want to do with coding? i.e. Why are you teaching yourself to code?

Go to Latin America or SE Asia if you do. Your money will go a lot further.

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