Ask HN: What computer skills should you learn first?

5 points by Sagat ↗ HN
I know how to roughly use a computer and fix most technical issues thanks to Google. But I don't know much more than that (no programming or hardware experience for instance) and I don't know where to start.

What should be the first things to learn when trying to become more computer literate after mastering the basics?

Regards

8 comments

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How to Google search.
I'd suggest two things:

* Learn Python -- try making some small tools in it.

* Learn how to use Linux -- you can start with Kubuntu and familiarize yourself with terminal and the other things you'll encounter here.

But really -- if you want to be more "computer literate", just focus on programming. Writing small tools; and maybe even taking on a big project like building a 2D game (if that's what you want)...

If you want to learn to code, you might find it worthwhile to think up a real-life computing task you could use a program to automate, then write, say, a Firefox extension, a Python script, or a contribution to an existing codebase. This has the advantage over game programming in that:

* You can avoid all the interface baggage that comes with game programming. (unless, of course, this is what you're aiming to learn)

* You will be solving a real problem, instead of creating a fake one for people to solve.

For example, this project was how I first got my feet wet with python: http://www.nerdhow.com/uzblsms-a-way-to-browse-the-web-via-t...

I guess my point is that I learned (and am learning) how to program by treating code as means to an end, rather than learning to program just for the sake of programming.

Read "Code" by Petzold.

As far as practical computer skills, study any book on A+ certification (maybe even get that cert), then learn Linux/Python

To print the contents of a file onscreen.... If you want to do it in 1 line of code: bash If you want to do it in 5: Python If you want to do it in 30: C