Thank you everyone for all your kinds words, advice (both cautionary and otherwise), resources, encouragement. Some of you also took the time to personally reach out to me and offer help. I had never intended the post to be read by so many people but I am truly grateful to each one of you who did so (and also took time to comment and email). I am also slightly embarrassed by so much attention.
There is lot to unpack from the comment threads below and I will be doing that in the coming days. As recommended by several of you, I have also added an RSS feed on my blog to help you follow my journey.
I started teaching in a small village school (where they don't care about your qualifications if you are good at the subject and can teach). I did finish my college several years later.
Well, in my part of the world - there are entrance exams for good colleges which can be cut-throat.
The objectives I mentioned are somewhat guided by what I know at the moment.
I really would like to understand computers and computing at a more fundamental level. When that happens, I am hoping my objectives will also change / evolve.
Thank you for your kind suggestions and advice.
Concentrating on 'practical skills' and 'shiny frameworks' is exactly something I want to avoid and focus on aspects (data structures, algorithms, networking etc) which you talked about.
Thank you for sharing these valuable resources.
I am already on to the OCW Python course and SICP textbook.
How did you start on these resources? Did you start reading them because you needed them in your current project Or did you read them because you thought they will be useful for your project?
Hey thank you for the time you took to comment and offer advice.
1. I agree. I am still working on the community project which my wife is building - it has started to grow and looks like it has the potential to become a sustainable source of income. I have built the website and automated some stuff for her. I am also honing my skill as a woodworker and toymaker - learning to make wooden toys.
2. I did the HtDP version of the program hosted on the edX platform. I enjoyed the whole program and it was very insightful on how to think about creating larger and complex programs. It also motivated me to read the SICP textbook - I've read a couple of chapters from the book. I also adapted the HtDP program in Hindi to teach village girls here for a local non-profit on how to code.
3. I agree about OSSU. What I don't like about OSSU courses is retention. I did the Programming Languages (A, B and C) course by Dan Grossman a few months back. I enjoyed the course and the exercises - but I am not sure how much of it I retain today. These and the HtDP program has definitely helped me to think what might be happening inside the hood of programs rather than treating them as magical boxes.
4. I think I can keep exploring computers while simultaneously make my living as a woodworker / toymaker. It also helps me balance my faculties of mind and my hands /body. I am not thinking of an end goal at the moment but want to keep exploring and potentially building.
Oh the point wasn't that we can't do it now. The point is that not enough people choose to make their own custom software and the systemic reason behind it.
A bunch of useful insights in your reply. I really liked the insight of User Interfaces getting simpler while developer experience getting more complex. A counter argument that comes to mind is how violin has the most difficult UI - but a lot of people spend lot of time mastering it and enjoy creating music from it - often independently or in smaller bands. How can that happen with more people in development - maybe making developer experience more joyful is the way to go.
I'm not against specialization - but specialization can be done at a small community level too.
I meant business scale ... sometimes we have to make choices in terms of building for a (potentially) large audience or building something you feel joyful about and not caring for scaling.
Reading this reminds me of the era which was envisioned will happen when I was in college (which was not long ago) - individuals and societies building their own independent custom stuff (both hardware and software) with the power of computers in everyone's hands. I am sure that is still happening in small pockets but most of the 'stuff' we use are built by large mindless corporates on which we have almost no control - and who prioritize profits over well-being of the employees and the community.
I don't know for sure what the problem was (I have my theories) and why could we not get there where most people build their own custom products.