On Jan 17, 2015 6:25 AM, "Dave Long" <dave.l...@bluewin.ch> wrote: […] > Of course I could be completely wrong ... what do our self learning silk-listers think of all this? How long do you feel would be "too long" to work on an exercise or a puzzle?
I like your boxing gym analogy. It is my experience that I enjoy a large library and copious spare time more than any tutor or external source of motivation. The joy of learning is usually enough. I do enjoy interacting with a passionate community when I need to bounce ideas. I'm almost entirely self taught, academia is where I went to mollify my parents. I did however learn about unpredictability of the human element, something that was largely absent when coding in my bedroom. So it was very useful, albeit an unexpected outcome. I don't know if competitions help with that. It could be the way I do things, but competitions or victory against others had never interested me in any sphere of life, including programming. I definitely like the act of creation. Creating something that can be a complete application that someone could potentially use in real life is important even when I'm learning a language. I also know several excellent programmers who enjoy awards and the thrill of success from being the best even if it means working on artificial problems. I don't think there's a stereotype.
