Rands In Repose:

Each week that passes where you don’t share the joy, despair, and discovery of software development is a week when you slowly forget what it means to be a software developer. Over time it means you’ll have a harder time talking to engineers because you’ll forget how they think and how they become bored.

How To Hire Developers:

Do you ask a cleaning service to clean your home before you hire them? Do you ask your accountant to file your taxes just to see if they’re any good? Do you sleep with a love interest before going on that magical first date?

No. It’s not fair for you to ask someone to spend hours writing dumb programs for you and it’s certainly not fair for you to ask someone to spend hours working on your dumb programs without paying them

Advice from an old programmer:

You may find that people treat you harshly because you can create software, maybe using words like "nerd".

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To this I have one just piece of advice: they can go to hell. The world needs more weird people who know how things work and who love to figure it all out. When they treat you like this, just remember that this is your journey, not theirs. Being different is not a crime, and people who tell you it is are just jealous that you have picked up a skill they never in their wildest dreams could acquire.

You can code. They cannot. That is pretty damn cool.