A level student thinking of becoming a coder.

[minestrone]

Ye Olde Sloughe of Despone used to do a Music Tech degree which included such novelties as a bit of elementary electronics.

Ye Newe Regime thought this Very Silly and thusly turned it into a BA so the techy bits could be left out.

I used to enjoy that course back in the day before it got revalidated & generally fecked up.

Jeff Baxter - Wikipedia

Jeffrey Allen "Skunk" Baxter (born December 13, 1948) is an American guitarist, known for his stints in the rock bands Steely Dan and The Doobie Brothers during the 1970s and Spirit in the 1980s.

Baxter fell into his second profession almost by accident. In the mid-1980s, his interest in music recording technology led him to wonder about hardware and software originally developed for military use,

Backed by several influential Capitol Hill lawmakers, Baxter received a series of security clearances so he could work with classified information. In 1995, Pennsylvania Republican Congressman Curt Weldon, then the chairman of the House Military Research and Development Subcommittee, nominated Baxter to chair the Civilian Advisory Board for Ballistic Missile Defense.

[BR14]

Jeff Baxter - Wikipedia

and a feckin good player too!

[NickFitz]

Although R looks like witchcraft to me, it is very popular with some at ClientCo for data manipulation with presentation in Power BI (even though it requires far less data manipulation to get the same/better result in Excel...)

I suspect this might be a bit trickier to do in Excel than in R: Using Natural Language Processing to discover themes in First World War poetry – R for Journalists

[ladymuck]

I suspect this might be a bit trickier to do in Excel than in R: Using Natural Language Processing to discover themes in First World War poetry – R for Journalists

True. There's much that can be done better in other tools. It's all about knowing what's the most appropriate tool for the job

[DoctorStrangelove]

Aye, it's very difficult to put a screw in with a hammer*.


*Unless it's s screw nail.

[LondonManc]

I wanted to be a lion tamer.

No early release claws?

[cannon999]

To be quite honest if by the age of 16 you are still 'thinking' of becoming a developer and haven't already been doing anything about it - you are not going to get very far. Every top level developer I know including myself have been doing this since we first picked up a keyboard. Logical brain needs developing from a very young age. Not saying he can't become a developer just probably not going to be an exceptionally good one.

Regardless of the above, my advice is:

- Try learning HTML/CSS/basic Javascript. Get a taste for what web development is.
- Download SQL Server (or something else!). Play around with SQL to try to understand how data is stored and queried.
- Pick a language and write some scripts. Doesn't have to be anything complicated. Create a REST webservice that connects to a DB and returns back some data.
- If you are brave enough - attempt lower level languages. This isn't for everyone but I know a few people who really enjoy C++/C etc. Also helps to understand the difference between lower/higher level languages.
- If your parents have money - go study computer science at a good university. Not computing. Not IT. Not any other micky mouse course. A solid understanding of computer science will really set up your career as a developer.

[vwdan]

To be quite honest if by the age of 16 you are still 'thinking' of becoming a developer and haven't already been doing anything about it - you are not going to get very far. Every top level developer I know including myself have been doing this since we first picked up a keyboard. Logical brain needs developing from a very young age. Not saying he can't become a developer just probably not going to be an exceptionally good one..

Oh come off it a little. As somebody who was also coding the moment I acquired a computer, this is such an arrogant point of view.

Yes, there needs to be a little bit of passion but to pretend that you've missed the boat at 16 is just ridiculous. If you can walk into the RAF at 18 and learn how to fly fighter jets, or go to university and learn how to engineer a nuclear reactor then you can learn to program.

[cannon999]

Oh come off it a little. As somebody who was also coding the moment I acquired a computer, this is such an arrogant point of view.

Yes, there needs to be a little bit of passion but to pretend that you've missed the boat at 16 is just ridiculous. If you can walk into the RAF at 18 and learn how to fly fighter jets, or go to university and learn how to engineer a nuclear reactor then you can learn to program.

You are deluded if you think that you can go to uni at 18 without having previously excelled and been extremely passionate about science since young age and go on engineering nuclear reactors. Also I don't understand what RAF has to do with science?

[vwdan]

You are deluded if you think that you can go to uni at 18 without having previously excelled and been extremely passionate about science since young age and go on engineering nuclear reactors.

Why not? I know PhD's who, while did well at school, weren't living and breathing their subject. Lots of people spend their youth not really quite knowing where to head, and sometimes the path takes you somewhere you didn't originally intend. The idea that you've boxed yourself in, or out, of being able to excel at something by 16 is just a ridiculous notion. It may give you a slightly steeper hill to climb, but even those kids who did fall in love with something tend not to be prodigies.

Like I say, to me, it's sheer arrogance to assume that because you started young the person who didn't simply cannot become "exceptional"

Also I don't understand what RAF has to do with science?

It's an OR, I'd have thought such an esteemed programmer would have been able to work out that there were two distinct examples. One of them was more about the ability one has to learn. Though if you think flying jets has "nothing to do with science", well, I guess we'll just leave it there.