How did you learn programming? How long did getting good take?
rdj: I learned just before leaving the military. A contractor said, "Learn Perl and you'll have no problem finding a job". So, I grabbed the "Learning Perl" book and forced my way through it. I was horrible (a Linux 'man' page wrapper; or basically system()). I do remember the day, while working on a project, that it all "clicked". All the concepts suddenly made sense. I'm good  now, but not great. I can solve problems in just about any programming language. This is 10+ years later.