How to Become a Programmer

It may or may not be true that you can learn a programming language in 7 or 21 days, and it may or may not depend on what "learn to program" book you read. However, it does take a lot longer than that to gain experience in how to use a language most effectively. It is a cumulative process that builds up your skills day after day and year after year.
Programming can also be fun and rewarding (mentally, spiritually and financially). This guide does not promise to give a magical easy way to becoming a programmer, and the ordering of the steps is not sacred, but you'll get a general outline of how to become a programmer in one of the modern programming fields^[1][2].

How to Become a Hacker

There is a community, a shared culture, of expert programmers and networking wizards that traces its history back through decades to the first time-sharing minicomputers and the earliest ARPAnet experiments. The members of this culture originated the term ‘hacker’.

There is another group of people who loudly call themselves hackers, but aren't. These are people who get a kick out of breaking into computers and phreaking the phone system. Real hackers call these people ‘crackers’ and want nothing to do with them. Real hackers object that being able to break security doesn't make you a hacker any more than being able to hotwire cars makes you an automotive engineer.