My story

How I actually learned

This is history, not advice. For the order I'd recommend now, see your path.

1. 12

   QB64

   My uncle (@gddmadoss) introduced me. I mixed and matched his lines. Seeing someone I knew prove it was possible was worth more than any tutorial. Later I built a graphing calculator.

2. 15–16

   The web

   One summer on Khan Academy, then HTML, CSS and JS. Notepad first, then Atom (now a historical tool, not one I recommend), then VS Code. The web is the most expressive medium I know.

3. Python and Go

   Python showed me how far one language could reach. Go taught me that the simplest design is often the right one.

4. Creative coding

   Generative art with Processing and p5.js, Nature of Code, games. It kept the spark alive and sped up everything else.

5. High school

   vaqcoders

   As a senior at Rancho Alamitos High, I started my own on-campus community: vaqcoders.

6. College

   CSUF and ACM

   A CS degree at Cal State Fullerton, where I learned C++. In ACM I was founding open source software team lead, vice president, competitions manager, ICPC competitor and webmaster.

7. 2021–22

   Google

   Software engineering intern at Google.

8. Now

   AI and software engineer

   Still building developer tools and learning as the field changes. Most of what I know I taught myself, and I still do.

More at etok.me.