Hey all.  I wanted to dive into a topic that's been on my mind for
years.  I've been interested in programming for a very long time and
yet somehow I've only ever dabbled.

* I've never been forced to learn anything through school (a half-year
of turing and another half of ms access 1.0 does NOT count).  Frankly,
I do not respect school for learning real programming skills and would
never pay someone money to teach me something I could learn by myself
for "free" (buying books, taking the time, searching for answers
myself).

* I've never used such skills at work (batch files don't count).  I
don't think I'll ever do anything programming-related until _after_ I
learn the skills and choose to use it.  Honestly, I have an
opportunity to sneak in Ruby in my (small) business.. if it does the
job.  Ruby on OSX gives us extra motivation too.

* I've never had motivation to program as a hobby (batch files and
4dos scripting doesn't count, vague interest in c or asm/machine
language doesn't count).  I have no problems which I see solved by
programming myself more than using someone else's tool.  So instead of
developing the programming skills, I have developed effective
researching and troubleshooting skills.

And yet where I see that my problems can be solved by other people's
tools.. I feel as though I could make better tools myself.  I
especially want to be able to create scripts and software solutions
for some of my stranger issues.  I already know that I can be valuable
to the community being who I am and having the skills I do, but I
yearn to do more.. to solve problems MY way.

---

And so after a lot of thought I ended up looking seriously at Ruby. 
Lots of time passed and I revisited the subject to learn that a
community had self-organized, that issues with documentation and such
were being solved, that entertaining tutorials were being written
(props to wtls on that one).

Fine.  I like Ruby.  I want to learn Ruby.  How do I work on the
problem of motivation?

Hack a little every day?  Read a little every day?  What books, what
tutorials, what news channels?  I am not overwhelmed by the amount of
choices.. but I am confused at what order to do things in and why. 
The biggest challenge to a complete nubie is the number of tools Ruby
uses..

I had a hand in resurrecting my local RUG.  We had our seventh meeting
this month and every time feels like a real success.  I did all this
knowing that I wasn't a "real programmer" and that.. I don't know
Ruby!  I look back and wonder where all the time went.

I'm a smart guy, so I am making do.. I am learning what I can but I
don't feel _effective_ or _motivated_.  I don't want my hand held, I
just need a guiding light.


Has anyone thought about founding a "Ruby nubie" mailing list or
creating nubie-sized short-tutorials, quizzes and challenges?  I'd be
very interested in participating.