My story in point form:
-I'm 33 and have the brain of an engineer/math/programming person, but my experiences and education are more business related. I have ambitions to build software.
-Undergrad in business.
-Worked corporate for 2 years as Business Analyst.
-Went back to school, did a masters in operations research (math stuff).
-Never pursued career in that, instead worked and eventually ran the family (small) business for 6 years.
-In Nov 2011, I left the family business, and started a web development company called ET.
-I started off thinking I'd outsource/hire developers and I'd do all the biz stuff, but in the spring realized, its hard if you don't know the tech yourself. I started learning how to code myself, and I like it.
-I feel like I'm learning way too slowly. I basically work on my own on client projects (my own or from a friend), sometimes I can get help from this friend, but he's way too busy to really teach me. And the internet is great, but I find its only surface learning. Not the deep understanding I need to accelerate the learing process.
I have lots of questions, but I'll stick to the main one. How can I accelerate my learning?
These are the options I"m aware of and what I think of them right now.
University/college courses - Great deep learning, but too much irrelevant stuff. It would be nice to work with people on assignments and stuff, but not sure if people still do this like the "old days"!
Full-time job as a Junior Developr - I'm afraid I'll get stuck with doing too much grunt work and not really learn what I need to learn. Plus, all the other things like having a boss, politics, etc. Also, it may be hard to find such a job with my experience.
Work on my own, but in a shared space with other developers - not sure if this exists, and if I'd bug them too much!
Do my own "assignments" - I think I'll learn but, still, no interaction, just Google.
Your insights would be greatly appreciated.