The title says it. I am a 37-year-old wanting to learn computer science.
But who am I really?
I am someone who has always wanted to build stuff. I am fascinated by the process of creating anything. And it gives me unbridled pure joy to have people use something I have built in a meaningful and useful way.
I am not a complete beginner in computer science. I am still a somewhat-beginner. At least I know how to hack my way to build and host a minimalistic static blog like the one you are reading. I also just recently launched a slightly (only just so) more complex website for a passion project which my wife and I run [1]. I designed this website on my own as well while reading the book Refactoring UI [2]. This took me almost 4 months.
The fact that I was able to build both these websites was also thanks to this beautiful framework [3] (and their well written tutorials and documentation) I accidentally discovered. So I also know how to read and understand (a lot of times) technical documentation.
I have had a very non-linear career graph. I left (ran away from) home when I was 16. I was unable to take up the academic pressure of wanting to excel at school and in the competitive exams that follow it.
Since then I have worked as a waiter, in an internet café, as a sales person, in a call center and in several other odd jobs. Most of my career though is spent as a teacher - teaching Math, Science and Computers to primary students.
Most of the little I know about computers (majorly some bits of web-development) is self-taught.
I feel the desire and the need to plunge to the depths of computer science. It is not a one or two-year plan, and it is not aimed towards landing a job as a software developer. I am okay with spending the next decade of my life trying to build some level of mastery in this domain.
I know that the field is very vast and even a decade might be a small dip - but I really want to learn how to design APIs, build databases, play around with operating systems, learn about networking, write drivers for custom built devices, design and build good custom applications for my family and community, and so much more.
I have spent most of my working days in survival mode. Finally, I have some savings which can conservatively last me at least the next 5-7 years with my current minimal lifestyle. My lovely wife (who is a psychotherapist, and who believes I have adult ADHD) is supportive of my journey, and has no qualms becoming the only breadwinner of the family.
I am mindful of the ageist tendencies in the tech industry - but that does not deter me from taking this plunge - at least for now. I am also aware of some of the very good resources which are available to get me started on this path [4].
Several things.
Some of these would be:
- A HN / reddit themed app for the community my wife and I are building.
- A device through which I can stream movies, tv serials from my device to my parents’ television - so that we can watch them together.
- Education apps that leverage learning theories, community learning and game design to make learning more inspiring and accessible for students.
- A product (hardware or software) that solves either a niche or a common problem - and around which I can build some kind of revenue model to sustain myself.
- An e-commerce app for the wooden toys I design and document. [5]
I am sure that some of these ideas will evolve and refine themselves over time.
Wish me all the luck for the journey I am undertaking! I will keep you updated on the progress I am making.
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A community of adults which reads and uses children’s picture books as a medium to talk about complex psychological, social and emotional issues. (https://childrensbookforall.org)
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A crash course on UI design written by founders of TailWindCSS (https://www.refactoringui.com/)
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Astro - a JavaScript web framework optimized for building fast, content-driven websites. (https://astro.build/)
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TeachYourselfCS (https://teachyourselfcs.com/) and the Computer Science curriculum of OSSU (https://github.com/ossu/computer-science)
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Not in public domain yet, but I plan to put them in the public domain.