The purpose of this blog

The purpose of this new blog of mine is to document my new self-learning project: to learn computer science from the ground up, methodically and regularly.

Why am I doing this?

I have a number of goals and purposes:

Learning for learning's sake

I think that learning can itself be a worthy goal. That, learning can be a hobby and an activity that is its own reward.

My interest in technology and how things work

I've always been interested in how things work, and technology, etc. Which is funny, because I also have a deep skepticism of technology, especially what we call "high tech." I think that humans should guard their autonomy and independence jealously.

At the same time, learning how things work allows you to regain significant autonomy. If you personally can program the computer, it's less of a mysterious "black box" that you are over-awed by.

Finally, it's simply fun to get into the nuts-and-bolts of how things work.

I think I was meant to be an engineer of some sort, despite my interest in the humanities, biology, writing, boat-building, etc. I have too many interests, but at least an engineer, you can decide what you want to build, and build it!

Professional reasons

Everyone without a trust fund needs to make a living! I aspire to be paid to program someday in the not-too-distant future. I am a tech writer now, and I have programmed professionally in the past, despite the fact that I am self-trained.

Pushing the limits, proving that you can teach an "old dog" new tricks

I intend to prove that someone in their 40's can learn the trade of programming and software engineering, and be innovative, competent, and productive.

There seems to be an ageist bias against older programmers and software engineers. 
Enough said. It's time to show people that you can push yourself to excel and learn anything, and that the youth-obsessed culture is shallow and clueless.

With that, my next entry will be about something I have actually learned.

I don't know exactly what my method and overall learning plan will be yet. Stay tuned!