A PM I received recently:

Hey, you seem to know your way around computers. You mentioned that you were self-educated, so do you mind giving me a few tips on how to do the same, (methods, etc.)?

A warning before you read this: I have not planned this, and it randomly gets off-topic. Take what you can get from it.

I think some of you already know that my computer knowledge is mostly self-learned. I rarely use things like tutorials. I prefer to learn by copying and experimenting. For example, I learned basic swimming by watching my dad, copying what he did, and then experimenting with the technique to suit me better. Here, I will tell you a story.

As far back as I can remember, I have always had an interest in computers. I mean that literally. One of my earliest memories is of a Wandows 98 computer. I asked if I could use it, and after bothering my dad and sister* about it, the answer was yes. Unfortunately, when I sat in that chair and looked at the screen, I had no idea how to do anything on it, and no one told me what to do when I asked. I think that happened because they thought I was too young to understand it and just wanted me to stop bothering them.

*I barely remember her, and I do not know what her name is/was. I do not even know if she was my biological sister.

For most of my life, I have been living with my grandma. It should be no surprise to any of you that she did not have any personal computers. Just a CRT television and a telephone with an answering machine older than I am. I got my first computer during one of the later grades of elementary school. It was an old Toshiba laptop thing. The hard drive had a 30 gigabyte capacity, and the RAM chips had a total of 256 megabytes. The operating system was an old version of Debian, which is one of many available Linux distributions. It had no internet connectivity, so I messed around with the system on it. A few years later, I got a new Toshiba laptop computer. This one is capable of a wireless connection, so I used a nearby open spot until my grandma bought us a personal internet connection. It had Wandows Vista on it for quite a while, but I eventually replaced it with Ubuntu (a popular Linux distribution) after getting tired of the slow speed and the unacceptable amount of bugs. Before I did that, one of the things I frequently did was play Half-Life 2: Deathmatch. That is where I started programming. For a while before then, I had wanted to know how people made those mysterious executable files that make the computer do stuff. I tried opening one in a text editor, but all I got was a screen full of meaningless symbols. Eventually, while playing HL2DM, I heard of a popular server addon (SourceMod) that lets you make plugins to do various things. It uses a programming language named SourcePawn, which is based on C. SourcePawn is the first programming language I ever used. I downloaded SourceMod, then I looked at the code for the default plugins. I copied them and experimented with them to see what did what. Within a few weeks, I knew basic programming.

Yes, that is what I did. That is the secret to learning programming without actually having someone teach you. Perhaps something different works better for you, but that is what did it for me. You want tips on how to self-teach computer skills? Just do it <insert Nike symbol here>. Here is what has led to my knowledge of computers and programming:
- Interest from a young age
- Frequent use after acquiring one
- Copying and experimenting with things that other people have made

Some tips from me:
- If you are using Wandows, do not delete System32
- If you are not using Wandows and you do not want to use Wandows again, delete System32 to save space
- If you are serious about programming, get a Linux distribution. Along with the other benefits, they are much better for programming on than Wandows is.
- Do not reinvent the wheel, but do try to make it rounder. That means do not recreate code that other people have already made, but improve it if you can.
- Use a computer a lot

So, what does this mean for you? I do not know. Everyone learns differently. For me, experimenting with the system and imitating other people has worked quite well. I would not know as much as I do about how to use a computer (in general, not programming) if I did not spend so much time using one. Back to the question:

You mentioned that you were self-educated, so do you mind giving me a few tips on how to do the same, (methods, etc.)?

Figure out what works for you, then do it. Every person is different. Perhaps nothing will work for you when it comes to computers. Something that people who know me IRL have noticed about me is that I am not very good at creative things, but I excel at things like math and science. I do not know of many people who are good at those things and good at creative things at the same time. You should know what this implies. That does not mean you should give up before you start if you are already good at creative things. Try it first.

I have one final tip (and warning) before I get bored of typing this. A COMPUTER DOES EXACTLY WHAT YOU TELL IT TO DO. If it is not working properly, it is a human error. If your code is not working as expected, you are doing it wrong, not the computer. It could also be an error caused by the people who made the compiler or the people who made a library you are using, but those are less likely.

Oh, and an explanation for why I frequently bug people about their spelling and grammar errors. Such errors can be much worse when you are programming than they are when you are making a story/blog post/comment/etc, so I have a habit of noticing them. You might know the difference between "your" and "you're", but a computer does not have that intelligence. If you type the wrong thing, it will not correct you. It will do exactly what you tell it to do.

Well, I hope this post has helped you with something, although I am not sure if I actually managed to answer the question that was asked of me.