[ChuckF]

Originally Posted by ceptimus

Many of the languages in common use now: Java, Go, PHP, JavaScript, C-sharp, ... are very C-like at their heart - the main differences are slightly different syntax, and the data structures that come bundled with them.

Nowadays programmers mostly use the ready-made data structures: maps, lists, dictionaries, queues, ... things like that, and there is less roll-your-own programming of these things from the ground up just using integers and arrays.

My advice is to pick a language you like the look of and become fluent in it - you only do this by writing lots of programs. Reading books, watching videos, and attending courses won't do it. You need to think of some slightly challenging programming task that, at your current level of expertise you can complete in a reasonable time, but most of all is interesting to you. Then do it. Then either think of another challenge and do that, or improve on the solution you your first one. Rinse and repeat. You might try to write a simple game - something like Tetris or Pong maybe - or you might write a program to catalog your music collection; the main thing is to choose something that is interesting to you.

Once you're reasonably fluent in a chosen computer language then swapping over to a different one is fairly painless - I think you'll find this is easier than trying to learn several different languages at the same time. Of course, whatever language you decide to learn first, you'll inevitably encounter a few 'sub-languages': things like SQL, HTML, JSON, that they all tend to use.

I don't know many programmers who use calculus very often. Most programming tasks that involve something like that, you just need a vague memory of what it was all about, then google the topic in question and you usually find some good write-ups on how you tackle such mathematical problems using computer code and algorithms.

Thank you cep - that seems like enormously sensible advice! The main reason I am thinking in terms of doing some courses is to impose some structure on myself. I will be doing this outside of and in addition to my normal job - if I incur a little bit of cost and pay for tuition, I will feel like I need to do the work just to complete the task, so I am somewhat less likely to put it down one day and just never return. I will at least finish the class out of my completionist drive. If I find that I have to make myself finish the class out of will, that is probably a good indication that I will not be good at this.

Good luck. As long as it's interesting while you're doing it, learning is never wasted - even if you get bored and give up, you'll still have gained some useful background knowledge that will enable you to interact better with colleagues and customers in the future.

That is a huge part of it as well. One part of my job that is somewhat promising, and is not squarely inside of the narrow and highly specialized knowledge that I have, is the legal operations side. Like, I know how to design strategies for maximizing efficiency in some otherwise inefficient, high-volume, labor-intensive contractual work. It would be nice to be able to reduce some of those to technical practice without having to try to teach them to somebody else first.

I have recently been in the situation of working with a contracted developer to implement an organization-wide system for getting contract approvals. Designing the system was pretty easy. The single most frustrating part was communicating the specs and the process to the developer in a way that he could also understand. I can draw the flowchart and everything, but on some level we did not have a common vocabulary that would have saved us both a lot of time. That would also be nice to have.