Continuous Learning

So, work has been pretty hectic the last few years. I've been on a helicopter development program that has had its' share of challenges, and that has translated into very long days and lost weekends. I tend to be pretty committed, so I haven't had a lot of time for hobby's or family, much less learning new things. Which is unfortunate, because learning new things and solving problems is pretty much all I like to do.

But thankfully things have slowed down just a tiny bit, so I've got some spare time. This blog is one testament to that fact. But what I'm most excited about is that I'm spending time on something I have been wanting to do for a long time, which is learn to program.

Of course, with an engineering degree, I've already had programming classes. In fact, I was a computer science major my first year in college. But the school I attended was really focused on business applications, not computer science. I quickly decided that I didn't want to solve some business manager's mailing list problem. (Now I have a much greater appreciation and even interest in data management and manipulation, but as a 19-year old, I just wasn't inspired.) The good news is that drove me to explore other career options, and when I looked into engineering I decided I had been born for it.

Over the years, however, I have often wished I had stronger programming skills, so that I could solve problems more effectively. Sometimes they were engineering problems, but often they were business related. And recently I have even thought that it would be a lot of fun to write an iPhone app. Granted it's unlikely that I will develop the next killer app, but it would be a real kick just to develop something that would work on an iPhone.

Visual Basic would be the most practical language for me to learn, since I could use it at work on a daily basis. But it doesn't get me any closer to an iPhone app, and it doesn't have the power and flexibility of C. Besides, I have toyed with VB over the years, and I can use it a bit when the need arises.

I decided on C, and then found out that I couldn't get into a class during the summer. As it turns out, that was probably a good thing, because I ended up looking into iTunes U, and I was amazed at the classes that are available through podcasts! I have download several complete computer classes from Stanford: an intro class in Java, an intro in C, an iPhone App Development class, plus a couple of others. And these are great classes! They are the complete lectures, with slides. I started the iPhone course, and really liked it. But I decided that I needed to back up and build a foundation before completing that class. So now I am taking the intro to JAVA, and I think the instructor may be one of the best I have ever seen. He really makes me want to take a sabbatical and go get a CS degree at Stanford (as if I could afford it!)

So I'm really excited about the volume and quantity of education that is available for free on iTune U. Maybe it's a good thing I didn't' see this while I was still working 70-hour weeks, because I would have resented not having the time to dive into this. It's great to learn!