Is it worth it?

Dustyshouri · 08-18-2006, 05:35 PM

I've self-taught myself everything I know about programming from various on-the-web tutorials. I've learned HTML first, then moved on and began getting more cleaner and advanced with CSS stylesheets for my sites instead of using attributes in tags. Now I've moved onto PHP and mySQL. The question is, is it worth it? I don't plan to go into any sort of business doing this, I'm not that good. But so far, I have no one to really show off my work too, no one that appreciates it, no businesses needing it. The only reason I've done what I've done so far is because I run a very small website for a guild in a game, which most probably don't even have. My first PHP project was making an image hoster for my girlfriend, since she isn't very adept in webhosting and so on, but of course there are already a dozen or so image hosting sites out there. My second is making a dynamic news page for my site, so you could post updates without having to edit HTML and upload it into the webhost and so on. That took me all day of practicing and debugging mySQL code that I just learned... except I know I'm the only one who can use it, and I may as well just edit the HTML myself. I mean, I like to do it, it passes time, but I also don't see it fulfilling much, and no one to appreciate the work I put into hardcoding it all in notepad. Would I be better off to just use the hundreds of free scripts already available and not waste effort trying to learn it?

sinclair_tm · 08-18-2006, 07:34 PM

i am one who personally feels that if you have the time and desire to learn this stuff, then do. if you want reconition for your knowledge, then i'd say stop. but i like learning more about the things the intrest me, even if i really never use it. for me its steam locomotives. i love them, and was lucky enough to learn how to maintain and operate them. it was an awsome summer. now will i ever use that knowledge again, i hope so, but most likely not. but now i can say i can do it, and that gives me personal pride. i'd say think more along the lines of when your old and look back on your life, will it be something that you are glad you did, or will you regret not doing it?

08-18-2006, 05:35 PM	#1 (permalink)
Dustyshouri Registered User Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 11 OS: Windows XP?	Is it worth it? I've self-taught myself everything I know about programming from various on-the-web tutorials. I've learned HTML first, then moved on and began getting more cleaner and advanced with CSS stylesheets for my sites instead of using attributes in tags. Now I've moved onto PHP and mySQL. The question is, is it worth it? I don't plan to go into any sort of business doing this, I'm not that good. But so far, I have no one to really show off my work too, no one that appreciates it, no businesses needing it. The only reason I've done what I've done so far is because I run a very small website for a guild in a game, which most probably don't even have. My first PHP project was making an image hoster for my girlfriend, since she isn't very adept in webhosting and so on, but of course there are already a dozen or so image hosting sites out there. My second is making a dynamic news page for my site, so you could post updates without having to edit HTML and upload it into the webhost and so on. That took me all day of practicing and debugging mySQL code that I just learned... except I know I'm the only one who can use it, and I may as well just edit the HTML myself. I mean, I like to do it, it passes time, but I also don't see it fulfilling much, and no one to appreciate the work I put into hardcoding it all in notepad. Would I be better off to just use the hundreds of free scripts already available and not waste effort trying to learn it?