People want to build something, not learn to program.
To teach someone to build something, teach them how to use the tools of the trade. No carpenter ever learned the physics behind wood in order to build their first table.
The answers to this question all come from people with a perspective that this is what they would do if they wanted to take a bright person and put them into a developer role at their company. And, they all have the defeatist attitude that unless you read these three theory books, and spend four months of intense study, you cannot be a programmer. What hogwash.
Most people cannot take four months off from work and intensely study programming. But, anyone can learn to tinker on something they care about with the right mentorship and using the right tools. Anyone can learn to use jQuery, Ruby on Rails or HTML if-and-only-if the point of doing so is not to learn jQuery, RoR or HTML but is to build something that inspires them. All you need is a path with baby steps and inspiration.
The question is fundamentally flawed.
People want to build something, not learn to program.
To teach someone to build something, teach them how to use the tools of the trade. No carpenter ever learned the physics behind wood in order to build their first table.
The answers to this question all come from people with a perspective that this is what they would do if they wanted to take a bright person and put them into a developer role at their company. And, they all have the defeatist attitude that unless you read these three theory books, and spend four months of intense study, you cannot be a programmer. What hogwash.
Most people cannot take four months off from work and intensely study programming. But, anyone can learn to tinker on something they care about with the right mentorship and using the right tools. Anyone can learn to use jQuery, Ruby on Rails or HTML if-and-only-if the point of doing so is not to learn jQuery, RoR or HTML but is to build something that inspires them. All you need is a path with baby steps and inspiration.