Returning to programming/math after a years long inactivity; becoming a better professional; setting goals

Question

I am in a somewhat, hopefully, common situation to many of my peers in NYC. I will be brutally honest here. I've graduated with CS degree (minor math) from a top 20 school, worked programming/qa jobs in software shops for 4 years, and then slowly moved to finance, taking jobs on Wall St (about 2+ years now). While I still do some programming, which is predominately in C/C++ (I kid you not). Most of the programming work revolves around maintaining a system or fixing minor bugs. And comparatively, I've been doing less and less of actual programming. And I've had almost no motivation to improve on that outside of the office. Bars, side hobbies, gym, women and most importantly LAZINESS are the essential culprits.

To be fair, I feel that I've NOT learned anything new, been forgetting old, and lagging behind all the cool technologies, as well as NOT getting better at or building on what I had known. I don't take part in the community (in college I posted on news boards, subscribed to major publications,etc). My math has also suffered tremendously.

I've also noticed that my notion of "programming" changed from cool/hacky to uncool/geeky/quick-route-to STOP gettting laid. This by itself is enough to explain why I've not evolved as a developer.

In a nutshell, I feel that instead of becoming a better professional, and thereby improving my skills in relevant areas, I head south at an alarming rate. I'm 30 now, and I do NOT want to exacerbate my situation even further. Ironically, I am very well paid, and living it up. I admit it's all facade, and one day it will all come crushing, once correction takes place. Very soon.

This weekend, I started re-reading Effective C++ series (by Scott Meyers), listening to math/cs video lectures on www.khanacademy.org/ and http://see.stanford.edu/see/lecturelist.aspx?coll=11f4f422-5670-4b4c-889c-008262e09e4e

I want to get back on track, but I don't have a definite goal and a plan, just ideas that I should (more like - MUST) to get my shit together. I would wholeheartedly appreciate some guidance, suggestions, recommendations. Please advise on what the best practices are. I need a plan.

Thank you so much!

Edit: Guys (and girls) -- thanks so much for support, valuable feedback, encouragement thus far. I'm glad this post was taken seriously and not dismissed as another troll attempt or attention hoarding. You have no idea -- all this will pay off in million ways for me.

Answer 1

First find out what you like to do. If you don't like programming anymore it won't be much of a help to keep studying C++.

If you still like it, then I'd recommend you to find a subject that interests you. It can be web programming, mobile programming (Android, iOS, etc...), video game programming, whatever motivates you.

Then, look for the current technologies used in the topic of your choice and write a software (it can be a demo not necessarily something you can sell) that uses these technologies. It can be a website, a mobile application, a game, whatever, just practice what you learn. This work will also become part of your portfolio, in case you want to switch from finance to a different sector.

Answer 2

Programming aimlessly will get you nowhere. You can read about best practices all you want, but without a goal and actual practice you won't improve.

Start or join a real project that you feel passionate about and the rest will take care of itself. When you have actual needs and concrete questions, you can come here or to stackoverflow and I'm sure you'll get very good answers.

Answer 3

Sounds like you really went off the flagpole there. People often choose to go someplace, not really paying to attention as to what they're letting go of while doing so, or even why they're choosing to go where they're headed in the first place. First things first: assess why it is that you are where you are right now. You're obviously ambitious and have no women trouble, so there's no trouble there. This typically means that you require something more fulfilling and deep to actually make you happy. I think life is telling you something, something which has placed you in a position many others wish they could be at right now, and that is that you're most important life decision has come. You're 30, right? Living on Wall St, you obviously have a great career at your side. But, ask yourself this: what is it giving you internally? We often feel as though we have to make our identities match what it is that we are inside. It's like trying to mold a class title with one of its own data members. This, unfortunately is impossible, because a class title is not the class itself: it is the identifier to which it refers to the data members of the class. My point is that you may be realizing that this is not what you want out of life, and that your inner self may be trying to tell you something more. I would recommend you really self-analyze yourself, and as objectively as you can. Ask yourself what it is that you really want out of life, and not just what, but why. Focus on that, too. Ask yourself why you chose to be where you are right now. Connect the dots, and really trip on where you're going to be ten years from now (shit! only ten years and you'll be 40!) Life goes by fast. Really fast. Still, remain calm. Relax. Relish in your achievement, but seriously consider what you want out of life. This may be your last real chance to truly make the right decision.

Answer 4

Well I'll tell you this, if you're not into the geekiness factor then C/C++ is not for you. Those are the languages that require the most cognitive load to get simple things done.

I'd recommend you learn the scripting languages.

• Python is very consistent and a solid programming language for getting things done.
• If you do want to go a bit geeky and specifically learn about best-practices and learn ruby.
• If you want to pick up web-programming then start with Ruby's Ruby on Rails framework. Also in that case start picking up javascript (the world's most popular programming language) but make sure to read Douglas Crockford's "Javascript, the Good Parts" as it is very easy to fall into bad practices with it.
• Finally, if you spend a lot of time in a windows environment, why not pick up Powershell - starting with Windows 7 it comes pre-installed and is a very underrated, robust language that is structured to be easy to learn. It will help you probably with your work as well as you will be able to automate a lot of silly repetitive stuff. Bonus: with powershell you get full access to the extremely powerful .Net runtime where pretty much every tool has already been written and its just a matter of finding it and learning the API.

Feel free to ask questions in the comments.

Answer 5

Join an open source project. It will force you onto best practices since other people are working in the same project and lets you build new and interesting stuff.

Answer 6

The only advice I can offer to get 'back on track' after asking yourself what you truly enjoy doing is to do a deep dive. Whatever the topic or genre just embed yourself into a group of people with a similar mindset - they'll keep you motivated. Then explore. Write a simple game, scour github and find a 'cool' project and play with it, start applying your math/finance knowledge to writing useful tools - you get the idea. As most imply, it all stems from passion. If you don't care that much about it, or don't have the motivation to jump in headfirst, then you'll never evolve your skillsets.

Nonetheless, you're certainly not alone in your sentiment - especially in the NYC technology/finance world. Shoot me an email - would be happy to shoot the proverbial you know what. (I'm in the same demo/geographic as yourself)