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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 18, 2026

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I seriously recommend either a good intro class or a good book for self study. (My recommendations on those would be pretty outdated now, so I can't offer any names myself.)

What WhiningCoil says about programming being a diverse set of skills in practice is true. But there is a core aptitude of thinking algorithmically. Some people can do it off the bat, some people can't do it at all, and some people need to try it from several angles before it clicks. This isn't really a matter of being smart enough; once you're over a certain threshold of intelligence, there just seem to be some people who are wired for it and some who aren't.

So I'd start with that. If it clicks, you can move on to study the other stuff in whatever way is best for you. If it doesn't, you can know that you gave it a fair shake.

Edit: As an addendum, I recommend learning your second programming language soon after your first. Some people fret about this and think it will be harder than it is. But it isn't that hard, and having experienced it will change how you evaluate your tooIs.