I'm starting these courses for a very simple reason:

When I was learning medicine we had a saying, "Watch one, do one, teach one".

This is a very important concept to how the brain works. If you learn something, and are not able to communicate it to another person, then you haven't truly assimilated it.

See what I just did? I related learning programming to learning medicine. That's what I mean by 'gestalt'.  I have learned that everything I learn in life can be relted to previous things I've learned in life. It's much more than learning facts. I want to understand how what I learn fits into it's field, the universe, my personal experience and the experiences of others.

So let's talk about programming. I first started programming on a Tandy computer in the 70's. I've played with it, mostly to improve my work and productivity ever since. I am drawn to thing's like Microsoft's Visual Basic for Applications, which can make what I do very easy, while learning something like C++ might take a little more effort. But I've never been more than a hobbyist. I've only had one paying job that included programming, although I've included it in every job, from my own ideas.

When I start learning a new programming language, there are certain foundations that are generally true with all of them. It's more than learning recipe's out of a cook book. And when I start trying to learn them I find that there isn't really a lot of resources availble for this basic, language agnostic type stuff. Or, I find that most of the books on technology are just a paraphrasing of the help files (especially with Microsoft stuff).

So I need a course that will help me fill in some blanks...

If you're serious about learning this stuff, then by all means join in. I would love to meet you. If you're looking for a quick fix, or homework help, you are welcome too. YOu might just learn something you didn't intend.

So let's just start easy: Tell us about what other skills or hobbies in life you are knowledgable in...