I’m making a real concerted effort to learn C++ this time. It’s still the most popular and powerful computer language. I took computer science classes in college before but they all used Java, which I guess was because Java is “easier” to use and learn. But to me Java is just C++ with all the safeguards removed.

The difference between when, in the past I’ve tried to learn C++ and now, is that Youtube exists now. There is an amazing Youtube channel that I’m subscribed to where the guy really knows the ins and outs of C++ and he demonstrates it well on the screen.

I don’t have a real reason to learn this or any computer programming now other than for my own satisfaction. I’ll most likely never ever have a job where I program just because I don’t have the experience. I don’t even have an idea for software to make. I just like to learn.

Man, if I would have had the internet and Youtube when I was a kid, I would rule the world now lol. When I was young I had to go through the card catalog at the library looking for subjects that piqued my interests. I remember staring at my GameBoy and wondering how would this thing hook up to a computer for game design. I just stared at it, for a long time. There was no way I would even have known where to begin to look for answers. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I was trapped – a victim of my own time and space.

Now that I’m an adult I don’t have any excuse for not pursuing the knowledge that eluded me when I was young. I literally have the world at my fingertips with the internet. Only now I don’t have the time or the requisite boredom needed to put on the blinders and delve into a topic for days on end.

I know soon enough I’ll get bored with computer science and move on to some other obsession; I always do. I always latch onto something for a week or two, then get antsy to do something else. But I don’t worry about this like I used to. Every time I get really into something and then move on I carry more and more of that knowledge with me. So my mind is now a giant salad full of chunks of knowledge from lots of different subjects and disciplines. Maybe it will all coalesce into one giant endpoint some day. Like, if Chicago Bears great Walter Payton can take ballet lessons to make his receptions and runs better, then maybe my level of knowledge about computer programming will make my other hobbies better.

It’s funny that in High School I only took typing classes to make my guitar playing better, you know, with better finger skills or whatever I was thinking. Then I took computer applications classes because I did well at typing. Then I took a computer science HS class because I did so well in Computer Applications. I loved the idea of computers having their own language that I had to know to program them. I built a classroom grading program in Basic that worked great. I was proud of it! So then I went to community college for more computer classes. Then I took French because I liked computer languages so much that I thought I would like real languages.