Dogwithswords
Member
Kind of a rant but you know what I'm talking about. As soon as you open your mouth about programming ANYTHING at all, suddenly everyone you know starts asking you the same questions...
1.) I have a grandiloquent billion dollar idea I'd like for you to work on but I can't pay you. You have to do it for free.
2.) Can you fix my (random electronic device) for me!?
3.) Can you program my MMORPG for me? I'll pay you $10.
4.) Can you hack someone's facebook for me? I wanna get back at them.
5.) Can you teach me how to hack facebook?
Probably one that tends to be a major gray area for me is, "I wanna learn how to program, where do I start?"
Usually a friend of mine suddenly takes an interest in programming and I give them general advice on what they can do based off what they wish to accomplish. They'll actually try to build a simple program and I gladly help out whenever they get stuck. Then three weeks later they're not coding anymore. :<
When I ask them why they want to learn, 50% of the time they just want to build an app or video game. Totally understandable and I do my best to keep them motivated. But unfortunately none of my friends succeeded. They would lose interest after a few days which makes me sad.
The other 50% of the time they say, "I wanna make a lot of money on the side." If that is their first response, I roll my eyes and cringe because it not only takes a great deal of effort to become proficient... PASSION drives that effort. They can't seem to see anything beyond money and I already know they're going to skim through the first tutorial hoping to become the next Zuckerberg or Bill Gates only to get bored and give up half-way through. I just get SO annoyed when people act like this is just something you can learn in a day with no former schooling and instantly have a $100k/yr salary just like that. And to them I kindly say, "If your first reason to learn programming is to get rich quick, you should study business not computer science."
Anyone have similar experiences?
1.) I have a grandiloquent billion dollar idea I'd like for you to work on but I can't pay you. You have to do it for free.
2.) Can you fix my (random electronic device) for me!?
3.) Can you program my MMORPG for me? I'll pay you $10.
4.) Can you hack someone's facebook for me? I wanna get back at them.
5.) Can you teach me how to hack facebook?
Probably one that tends to be a major gray area for me is, "I wanna learn how to program, where do I start?"
Usually a friend of mine suddenly takes an interest in programming and I give them general advice on what they can do based off what they wish to accomplish. They'll actually try to build a simple program and I gladly help out whenever they get stuck. Then three weeks later they're not coding anymore. :<
When I ask them why they want to learn, 50% of the time they just want to build an app or video game. Totally understandable and I do my best to keep them motivated. But unfortunately none of my friends succeeded. They would lose interest after a few days which makes me sad.
The other 50% of the time they say, "I wanna make a lot of money on the side." If that is their first response, I roll my eyes and cringe because it not only takes a great deal of effort to become proficient... PASSION drives that effort. They can't seem to see anything beyond money and I already know they're going to skim through the first tutorial hoping to become the next Zuckerberg or Bill Gates only to get bored and give up half-way through. I just get SO annoyed when people act like this is just something you can learn in a day with no former schooling and instantly have a $100k/yr salary just like that. And to them I kindly say, "If your first reason to learn programming is to get rich quick, you should study business not computer science."
Anyone have similar experiences?