I also think that googling code and problems can be quite troublesome when abused, as IRC, forums, etc...
But I feel like coding by yourself without google, irc is kinda frightening.
I know asking for help when you really need some isn't wrong, but how did older programmers tackle that conceptual "blank page" syndrome, without all that information abundance, when they didn't want to annoy their coworkers?
What you described here makes sense as a software building methodology, but how do you deal with more psychological issues, such as fear and frustration?
I probably don't like going through the hurdles associated with problem solving, but I'm not going to give up for all that.
I don't get excitement and joy from programming: so what?
There are moments when I can't get pleasure or joy out of anything I do, like sleeping or eating, but it doesn't mean I should stop doing either of those things.
I'm not interested by entrepreneurship and startups for the moment, for now I'm more into acquiring technical skill.
Maybe so, but I never mentioned anything about copypasting code myself. I type those snippets by myself, though sometimes I get some help from Stack Overflow, but I try to understand what I take from the answers, otherwise it's just some black-box code.
Online CTFs are computer security challenges (reversing binaries, exploits, cryptography/steganography challgenges, forensics). I'm trying my hand at those, although I'm still stammering :)
I also tried teaching myself some Django via online tutorials, but I must say web development isn't my cup of tea : One of those tutorials showed how to make a basic blog. I typed all the code by hand step by step. The admin interface shows up, the development server runs without errors, but errors arise in urls.py and the templates. I copypaste the relevant code to check. "Unmatched parenthesis" template error still showing. Googling the error: no relevant matches. I flip the table and ragequit.)
I like to think I have low-frustration tolerance, although I pick high-frustration video games (I'd probably love Dark Souls), but I still want it to develop that skill in case of (to show my portfolio yup, but in my case, said portfolio is pretty much inexistent, and that worries me to have nothing to show to potential employers, especially in the field I aim to work.)
Well, I concede formal education isn't much compared to hands-on experience, but public education is dirt cheap where I live, even free if you have a scholarship like I do (I'm French just so you know).
So IMO, having a degree at such a price isn't useless nor a time/money sink - at least when comparing to US/UK, but I don't want to think it exempt me from working on my own on side projects.
I'll most likely need certifications, but my scholarship cannot cover that for now. I'll save up for those once I'm in a taskforce.
I know asking for help when you really need some isn't wrong, but how did older programmers tackle that conceptual "blank page" syndrome, without all that information abundance, when they didn't want to annoy their coworkers?
What you described here makes sense as a software building methodology, but how do you deal with more psychological issues, such as fear and frustration?