 How did you get started in hacking/programming?
apsurd: When I was 19 I decided to start a t-shirt printing business and print tees/hoodies for high school clubs. I got this big idea that I needed a cool website. With more time than money, I sought out google to teach me "how to make a website". HTML and CSS days later, I got introduced to PHP. I then spent the next 4 years learning to spaghettify "scripts" into Frankeinstein web concoctions.The problem, at least as I see it, was that I always just trying to "get my next idea implemented". Granted that's how I learned quite a bit, I think the thing that finally helped me the most was when I decided I wanted to fully commit to programming  - and so I sought to learn for the sake of learning. TO consume myself. It was then when I met kohana, and jquery, and frameworks, and ruby, and Hacker News, and MVC, and OOP, and yeah the rest is history - true love.So my advice. Take it seriously. That doesn't mean it has to be work; consume yourself! You'll be good!edit: I wish I knew about frameworks and the power of just shutting up and learning from and trusting in people better than me. I love jquery. If people 1000000000 times better than me are working on jquery, it's more than I'll ever be able to do. Have to appreciate that.