The best way to prepare [to be a programmer] is to write programs, and to study great programs that other people have written. In my case, I went to the garbage cans at the Computer Science Center and fished out listings of their operating system.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Practical writing and studying others code are key to learning programming.
- In plain terms
- Learn to code by writing and reading other people programs code.
- What can you take from it?
- Practice coding and study existing code to improve.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How do you learn new skills?
- What code do you study?
Another view
Some concepts require formal study beyond reading code.
More from Bill Gates
Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable? The file system is no longer usable. The registry is not usable. This program listing was one…
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