Wikihow: how to start programming.

1: install devRant
2: register for stackOverflow
3: add Quora to you blacklist
4: learn programming!

Nothing beats the Full Stack Overflow dev who's mastered copy/paste...

There is a saying: Wise men learn from mistakes of others. Stack is foremost a platform where you share a dilemma and get ideas on how to solve it. Others then can learn from these and refine them. Why would you not use this kind of resource at the beginning of the steep learning curve? How it is different from copying code from a book or GitHub?

It totally depends on the mindset of the user. You either learn or copy and run into the next problem. And the next. Untill you realize that your approach is wrong and you change it or you quit.

@xios well, you have a point. However, a lot of the "best" answers on SO (the ones with the most votes) are the ones that, well, it goes like this:
1) find "best" answer, copy/paste
2) it seems to work, go back and +1 it
3) ... time passes, many repeats of 1) and 2)
4) someone posts a (technically) better answer, it is new, has no rating
5) answer is ignored in favour of the "best" answer

@curlmudgeon it still works. Copy paste solution hunters have a crappy hack and those who care about the craft still read the whole thread and possibly learn. It's only a problem if you get into the meaningless +1 popularity contest. Popularity != Validity. Sadly 95% of people disagree hence the fucked up status of the current world in general.

I make complete software entirely from overflow snippets....

@badcopnodonuts I try to craft beer. It tastes like shit, but it still gives a buzz =D you troll you =D

You missed 'learn git'!
I find it essential though.

@tethys0 +1000 to that

@curlmudgeon thank you :') I Need a phucking stressball whilst learning openGl xD

@linuxer4fun gods yes you do!

@curlmudgeon haha do it then.. 😊