Seek to surround yourself with people who think differently than you and who you'll learn a lot in every or most conversations. Take some time to just collaborate with folks recreationally. Figure out how to make sure you're around people enough day to day for your own personal happiness. Make sure you have habits that keep you sane and healthy even when busy and stressed.
Also: let me tell you a secret-- most tech startups aren't that technically interesting! :) Most are just a web shop for a thing, though some of those get interesting engineering challenges at the "web scale". Some startups do have amazingly interesting challenges at their core, but not all.
If you can come up with a product or service that has immediate value even if it has only a handful of users, go for it.
Learning to program isn't some mystic art, though like all parts of computer science there's a certain magic and mystique until you learn exactly how a thing works. To repeat what other folks have said, learn several languages and do a mini learning project in each. Pick up enough basic algorithms and the like so you can avoid odd performance problems, and maybe pick up a wee bit of scheme and haskell to stretch out your set of conceivable abstractions for your coding. ( so read things likes the structure and interpretation of computer programs and perhaps also something like learn you a Haskell)
Im also guesstimating that youre currently based in Texas. Take some time to do a teeny of lowkey travel and explore places like SF and NYC (NYC wooo!). Variety in environment helps the brain think better. Take advantage of that
Also: let me tell you a secret-- most tech startups aren't that technically interesting! :) Most are just a web shop for a thing, though some of those get interesting engineering challenges at the "web scale". Some startups do have amazingly interesting challenges at their core, but not all.
If you can come up with a product or service that has immediate value even if it has only a handful of users, go for it.
Learning to program isn't some mystic art, though like all parts of computer science there's a certain magic and mystique until you learn exactly how a thing works. To repeat what other folks have said, learn several languages and do a mini learning project in each. Pick up enough basic algorithms and the like so you can avoid odd performance problems, and maybe pick up a wee bit of scheme and haskell to stretch out your set of conceivable abstractions for your coding. ( so read things likes the structure and interpretation of computer programs and perhaps also something like learn you a Haskell)
Im also guesstimating that youre currently based in Texas. Take some time to do a teeny of lowkey travel and explore places like SF and NYC (NYC wooo!). Variety in environment helps the brain think better. Take advantage of that