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Self Taught or Educated?  

181 members have voted

  1. 1. Self Taught or Educated?

    • Self Taught
      171
    • Went to school/college
      8
    • Online courses
      3


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i guess it will always be both Self-taught and taught

you teach your self when somebody taught something that is unclear so you do a research etc..

everybody posted here is a member of this forum and its ipossible you dont learn something new in this forum so i guess that is taught?
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I began teaching myself PHP when I wanted to send some data from one place to another.  I remember asking everyone how to do something but having the hardest time explaining to them exactly what it was.  I can't exactly remember where it was that I discovered PHP but when I did I started trying to go beyond what I could actually do at that point which brought me from tutorial to tutorial to errors upon errors until caught on eventually.

More like the rest of you.  I wanted to know how to do it, so I researched it until I could do it.
Self Taught, which I never thought would happen. I mostly learned from looking at open source scripts and then occasionally tutorials (from here at phpfreaks :D) and php functions from php.net, of course help from people too when I couldn't figure out a problem with code.
I'm self taught; the only resource I've used is the PHP Manual(which is more than enough, I prefer the chm version).

The only book I've bought on PHP is "Extending and Embedding PHP"; but it's for explaining the inner workings of PHP, not PHP programming itself.

  • 2 weeks later...
what a load of crap, your all educated in programming you have to learn how to program via a teacher it dosent make sense otherwise, that teacher might be somone off the net if your a hobbiest or somone professional if u are aiming to become a professional, with php programming you have to know web technologies and they dont just appear in your mind you have to learn them as a hobby or an aimed professional progression course. In a degree you learn the basics of all internet technologies hardware and software including the basics of computer programming which means people that are educated KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING even thogh they may not know exactly how to do it they know what effect it will have and how it works.
at work you may not know how to do somthing but you can guess how it works by using the understanding of what u have learned as FACT by a professional, most stuff on the net is ambiguouse and everyone has different takes. As a web applications professional with a 3 year network computer science degree a 2 year graphic manipulation college course and almost 1 years experience as a PHP intranet developer i can tell you that a hobbiest will have a hard time using other technologies as they dont know the common workings of software and hardware so they will just learn syntax. at work there is little time for trial and error you hve to know what your doing even if u have never done it before, you have to know the risks and the only way you know the risks is by knowing how the damn thing works so u can patch it. i learned C JAVA and C++ ADA Machine Code Binary communications and PHP and ASP and as intro languages

ASP.net and JS came naturaly

and used the skills from all of them to expand upon PHP. I learned MySQL and MSSQL and also studied SQL so i have no problem putting together complex SQL yes we used BOOKS for some things. I learned how TCP IP routers switches and mac and ip addresses are used this allows me to intervine.

It is well worth getting educated

websites like phpfreaks are verry helpfull but they cant help you if u have started a proceedure wrongly or dont know the best way to do somthing or how to explain yourself, you have to know at least 90% of how to do somthing if ur gona get it sone with help.
[quote author=nadeemshafi9 link=topic=119164.msg744788#msg744788 date=1195782775]
what a load of crap, your all educated in programming you have to learn how to program via a teacher it dosent make sense otherwise, that teacher might be somone off the net if your a hobbiest or somone professional if u are aiming to become a professional, with php programming you have to know web technologies and they dont just appear in your mind you have to learn them as a hobby or an aimed professional progression course. In a degree you learn the basics of all internet technologies hardware and software including the basics of computer programming which means people that are educated KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING even thogh they may not know exactly how to do it they know what effect it will have and how it works.
[/quote]Really? I think that the vast majority of what I know I have learned from randomly looking through source files myself and messing with them until I find out how they work.
I would have to disagree with most of what you just spat out nadeemshafi9. I am a hobbiest programmer, I learnt asp from a book some 7 years ago and learnt php through tutorials (and the manual) found on the net. Since then I have learnt Bash and Python and have dabbled in C. Not to mention the fact that I have been using Linux for some 5+ years as well as administering servers / firewalls for the last 2. Just because you had to pay for your knowledge does not make you more knowledgeable. To me, its an attitude. Some people hack there way through stuff and never really get (or want) an understanding of how things work. Others (like me) decide they want to investigate further.

[quote]In a degree you learn the basics of all Internet technologies hardware and software including the basics of computer programming which means people that are educated KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING even though they may not know exactly how to do it they know what effect it will have and how it works.[/quote]

You have such faith in what you where taught.

I have at least 4 friends of mine that went to uni, studied all they needed to get there IT certs and still don't know shit. I get at least 3 phone calls a week from the IT professionals at my place of employment (I'm a logistics manager for a book publishing company employing some 400+ employees - nothing to do with IT) asking my advice on certain subjects simply because they are aware that I am knowledgeable.

Starting your post(s) with [i]what a load of crap[/i] would indicate that you are pissed you may have wasted all your time earning degrees when it would appear most php programmers are self taught. I put to you that it is not how you are taught that matters, but what you are willing to learn.
blinkin heck thorpe, its absoluely amazing how many languages you are skilled in by being self taugh same for the rest of you guys, going by the stats over 90% are self taught staggering.

as i'v said to a few of my mates, the only difference between people who get into uni and (most others) is the ability to remember things, for the most part id say.

cheers

Graham
[quote author=thorpe link=topic=119164.msg744818#msg744818 date=1195786394]
I would have to disagree with most of what you just spat out nadeemshafi9. I am a hobbiest programmer, I learnt asp from a book some 7 years ago and learnt php through tutorials (and the manual) found on the net. Since then I have learnt Bash and Python and have dabbled in C. Not to mention the fact that I have been using Linux for some 5+ years as well as administering servers / firewalls for the last 2. Just because you had to pay for your knowledge does not make you more knowledgeable. To me, its an attitude. Some people hack there way through stuff and never really get (or want) an understanding of how things work. Others (like me) decide they want to investigate further.

[quote]In a degree you learn the basics of all Internet technologies hardware and software including the basics of computer programming which means people that are educated KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING even though they may not know exactly how to do it they know what effect it will have and how it works.[/quote]

You have such faith in what you where taught.

I have at least 4 friends of mine that went to uni, studied all they needed to get there IT certs and still don't know shit. I get at least 3 phone calls a week from the IT professionals at my place of employment (I'm a logistics manager for a book publishing company employing some 400+ employees - nothing to do with IT) asking my advice on certain subjects simply because they are aware that I am knowledgeable.

Starting your post(s) with [i]what a load of crap[/i] would indicate that you are pissed you may have wasted all your time earning degrees when it would appear most php programmers are self taught. I put to you that it is not how you are taught that matters, but what you are willing to learn.
[/quote]

try being a pakistani decendant in uk and walking in with no qualifications and try get the job ? yes i am pissed that u guys are saying education is no good its got me a long way from platying with computers to making them do what i like. I was taght PHP for 5 weeks thats 10 hours the degree is 3 years.

i am self taght but the degree starts you off, yes i also have freinds that dont know the first thing its because they didnt concentrate.
Hmm. Well I quit school all-together about 5 years ago when I was 10, never went to collage or took any classes for any kind of programming language (either in real life or online course) and yet I can code just fine.
So I'm really not sure why you are so set on convincing us that we need a degree in order to be competent.

In any case, I doubt many people here are going to agree with you on that, so unless you have a good reason behind the claims you are making, not really much point in going on about it, no offense..
@azu 
some company  only promotes or give higher position on those person whos having the right degree..
like one of my friend i believe he's 32 yrs old now he go back to college to get the right position the
company..

WELL HERE IS MY IDEA IN HAVING A DEGREE or being a pro...

when you're pro thats means you have the basic knowledge about everything under the sun (not all but for sure its enough)
thats why we have tons of subjects that are not related to your real job.. but for sure they are very usefull..
like psychology, management, etc.. at first i also thought they are just a waste of time but the truth... they are your subject to prepare you for future big opportunities..  whats the realation ships of management, economics, english etc...?
If the company find somebody for the higher position for sure they will first look on the man who has the ability of managing planning and etc.. not just a man who only know GOOD code or the man who codes fine

PROFESSIONAL degree is very different from having certificate..

man my nose is bleeding i hate english hehe
  • 3 weeks later...
[quote author=nadeemshafi9 link=topic=119164.msg746625#msg746625 date=1196031001]
try being a pakistani decendant in uk and walking in with no qualifications and try get the job ? yes i am pissed that u guys are saying education is no good its got me a long way from platying with computers to making them do what i like. I was taght PHP for 5 weeks thats 10 hours the degree is 3 years.

i am self taght but the degree starts you off, yes i also have freinds that dont know the first thing its because they didnt concentrate.
[/quote]

I'm sorry but I have to completely disagree with this, just because you are of Pakistani decent has absolutely no bearing on whether you get a job in the UK, and its only marginally to do with lack of qualifications.

I have been on a computer science degree course and what I found is that in my first year they were teaching absolute rubbish, not to mention trying to teach students from a non programming background 3 different languages without giving them the proper basis for learning a language such as syntax and structure. The whole mathematical side of the course was a complete waste of time and should never be taught unless you intend on doing a masters degree or moving into artificial intelligence, I mean for example in the first 3 months you are asked to do quadratic equations, hex calculus and to be able to read and interpret binary computations.

Virtually every employer I have come across has said that they regularly do not hire people with degrees in IT simply because the students lack the basic skill sets and are more often then not taught things that are completely irrelevant.

You state that the professional degree is very different from a certificate, yes it is, Employers respect and agree that the value of a certified professional far outweighs a degree, and it is totally irrelevant how long it takes to obtain that certification because the vocational qualification means that the person has worked in industry and gained experience and have passed an examination standardised by the industry and not what some rather misled people in the university education boards think their computer science degrees should be.

I know people in the industry today (which really annoy me) who are registered with the Chartered IT Professionals, some who hold degrees, some who hold BTECs or other College qualification (except city and guilds they are good) and yet these are people I am having to explain the basics of user management too, these are the people who make statements about wireless networking and in those statements confuse wireless networking, wireless broadband and surfing the internet. These are people who do not even know that you can write data to a CD-R after you have burned data to it! I mean I am talking really basic stuff and they cannot understand it and for the most part do not know it.

You are also rather contradicting, you say that your self taught and that it was the degree that started you off but how? If you started as self taught, then the degree only helped expand your knowledge it did not set the foundation for it because you have set out on your own at first.

I agree completely with Thorpe.
  • 4 weeks later...
[quote author=Lukela link=topic=119164.msg783697#msg783697 date=1200000196]I am trying to learn JS and XML so I can learn how to use the Ajax Technique.
[/quote]
You don't need to know XML to use AJAX, look into JSON.
i started off liking math’s science and technology at school, playing with packages and making pictures at college, then i done a degree (BSc (Hons) Network Security and Management ) i achieved FIRST CLASS that’s the highest grade i got an A for everything 3 years 42 UNITS each different subjects ranging FROM business software ethics detailed and abstract design modeling network management and engineering a range of languages from ADA(American MILITARY language) to C the foundation of most things to Machine code to binary. i learned computer ARCHITECTURE and a host of other things i cant even remember, but every thing i come across relates to university i have been working for 1 year and am considered highly skilled multi talented and in demand. I am able to absorb the knowledge anyone puts forward without them even knowing, i can work with a team which is the most difficult thing. How can u solve a problem without knowing the full extent of what the platform is doing?

A degree is a symbol of Excellency
  • 3 weeks later...
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