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I've been working at a game development studio for a little over a year now as a QA tester with the goal of becoming a programmer eventually. With the new year, one of my resolutions is to do as much as I reasonably can to meet that goal. Which got me thinking "I go to work every day with people that obviously have the skills required to get the job I want." I figured why not just ask one of them to tutor me, perhaps to make some extra cash on the side as I would be willing to pay. I'm pretty good friends with a bunch of the programmers already, so I'd imagine it wouldn't be a big deal to ask.
I've been giving this a lot of thought though as it seems like an unorthodox approach and perhaps something that I don't hear being done elsewhere for a reason. Can anyone here think up some reasons why this is a bad idea?
EDIT:
Sorry I didn't give more information, didn't cross my mind for some reason.
I'm reasonably well versed in programming already, I've got a 4 year Computer Science degree and I've recently been programming small tools for people around the office. I've been getting quite a few requests these days after it became well known that I'm willing to do these little apps for people to automate various repetitive tasks for them. So all in all I'd like to say I'm not a complete programming noob. 
The reason I'm considering asking one of the programmers to tutor me is because I want to take my skills to the next level and I feel like I could vastly accelerate my learning if I had a tutor guiding me in addition to the programming I do on my own.
Seeing all the recent Starcraft coaching threads got me thinking about it in those terms too. I could get better at Starcraft by reading TL/Liquipedia religiously and mass gaming ICC. However, couldn't I really take my skills to the next level faster and more efficiently if I had Inc tutor me? Or in my case, I have access to the equivalent of pros so imagine having Flash tutor you or something.
EDIT2:
As I think about this more, any suggestions on what specifically to ask for would be helpful. I think I have a pretty good idea what I would request in terms of tutoring but I'd like to hear what you guys think as well.
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Wait. You need TUTORs to TEACH you how to program? Are you for rela?
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On January 08 2010 11:25 illu wrote:
Wait. You need TUTORs to TEACH you how to program? Are you for rela?
Uh what's so wrong about that?
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you dont really gave a lot of info about what you did so far to achieve your dream.
So a little info on your experience in programming so far would help to give you some advice.
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find a book to learn the basics
then find a more advanced book.
if there's anything you don't understand, that's when you ask someone else.
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*shrugs*
On one hand, people like making bank, and at a game dev studio they're gonna be super busy. OTOH, some people really like helping/teaching (I'm one of those), so you might get lucky.
A lot of programming can be learned solo. I'm not sure sure where most of my knowledge comes from, I learned it all so haphazardly.
I will say this: the best way to learn programming is to program things. Sounds silly, but it's true. If you're serious, pick a project, and try to make it happen. Develop a space invaders clone, or whatever. Then, instead of thinking of a 'tutor', think of someone to help you past roadblocks. This could be a real person, could be stack overflow, whatever. You're gonna develop some pretty terrible software your first time around. Yet, you can make it work, and you'll learn so much that your second large project will be 10x better. Stuff like this gives you something to show companies; people who have that kind of 'learn on your own' dedication are greatly desired.
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On January 08 2010 11:27 Cloud wrote:Show nested quote +On January 08 2010 11:25 illu wrote:
Wait. You need TUTORs to TEACH you how to program? Are you for rela? Uh what's so wrong about that?
I just don't think it is worth his money to hire someone to teach it to him: writing computer programs is easier than learning how to use chopsticks.
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On January 08 2010 11:28 dhe95 wrote:
find a book to learn the basics
then find a more advanced book.
if there's anything you don't understand, that's when you ask someone else.
I think he learnt "the basic" already.
To OP: situation you've described is a bit vague. How is your programming skill right now? Maybe you should write some code on your own and ask the programmers you know for some input. The tutor thing can come later.
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yoden pretty much hit this one right out of the park. I learned without books or classes; only with the use of tinkering and Googling. It sounds inefficient time/speed-wise, but it is probably one of the better ways to learn.
He's also right about people issue. I know that I'd rather find more ways to make more money rather than help a friend all the time. Sure I'd help them here and there and point them in the right direction, but I wouldn't go out of my way to spend hours a day or week to tutor them.
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On January 08 2010 11:30 illu wrote:Show nested quote +On January 08 2010 11:27 Cloud wrote:On January 08 2010 11:25 illu wrote:
Wait. You need TUTORs to TEACH you how to program? Are you for rela? Uh what's so wrong about that? I just don't think it is worth his money to hire someone to teach it to him: writing computer programs is easier than learning how to use chopsticks.
I always knew that that computing science career was a fraud.
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Learn the basics from a book, then use google for the rest.
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The best thing you can do is start a small project, think of anything and start your own project. Once you are done you can start adding enhancements, refactor code, etc. Also I recommend you join an open source project (apache commons for example if you know Java). You will get code review, etc all for free  .
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programming itself isnt too hard to pickup yourself, but there is tons of books out there that will teach you bad programming( meaning bad errorhandling/possible overflows/memory and processor efficiency/ etc ).
But selfteaching also gives you a lot of limits. I also knew my way around java and c to get a basic program to do what i wanted before i entered university, But once you get out of basic text/math operations, you will see that there is tons of math involved that you probably can not teach yourself.
I dont know how universities work in the US, but for example here, you can register yourself as a "guest auditor" ( i dont know if this expression exists in english  on the fly translation and just take part in a specific course. So taking some computer science courses like that might be more useful then asking some randomperson from your job to tutor you.
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On January 08 2010 11:35 Cloud wrote:Show nested quote +On January 08 2010 11:30 illu wrote:On January 08 2010 11:27 Cloud wrote:On January 08 2010 11:25 illu wrote:
Wait. You need TUTORs to TEACH you how to program? Are you for rela? Uh what's so wrong about that? I just don't think it is worth his money to hire someone to teach it to him: writing computer programs is easier than learning how to use chopsticks. I always knew that that computing science career was a fraud.
A degree in computer science is not a fraud. There are many open questions in theoretical computer science; while in applied computer science there are still many powerful algorithms without implementations.
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Kennigit
Canada19447 Posts
I think LiminaMadness had the best idea. I would highly suggest the open course videos from MIT/Princeton/Yale. Just search on youtube and you will find all the courses completely open sources (full lectures etc).
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Sorry I didn't give more information, didn't cross my mind for some reason.
I'm reasonably well versed in programming already, I've got a 4 year Computer Science degree and I've recently been programming small tools for people around the office. I've been getting quite a few requests these days after it became well known that I'm willing to do these little apps for people to automate various repetitive tasks for them. So all in all I'd like to say I'm not a complete programming noob.
The reason I'm considering asking one of the programmers to tutor me is because I want to take my skills to the next level and I feel like I could vastly accelerate my learning if I had a tutor guiding me in addition to the programming I do on my own.
Seeing all the recent Starcraft coaching threads got me thinking about it in those terms too. I could get better at Starcraft by reading TL/Liquipedia religiously and mass gaming ICC. However, couldn't I really take my skills to the next level faster and more efficiently if I had Inc tutor me? Or in my case, I have access to the equivalent of pros so imagine having Flash tutor you or something.
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On January 08 2010 11:56 Kennigit wrote:
I think LiminaMadness had the best idea. I would highly suggest the open course videos from MIT/Princeton/Yale. Just search on youtube and you will find all the courses completely open sources (full lectures etc).
I knew about MIT's open courseware, didn't know that Princeton and Yale had that as well. Thanks for the head's up.
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Belgium9947 Posts
Second this. Really nice book that's become a standard in the industry.
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wut u have 4 year cs and need a tutor? and i thought i was going to come out with my cs degree knowing shit...
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EPT
