Aspergers and programming(and other stuff)

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I have been trying hard to learn programming for a long while now, and I can never grasp the concepts. I always forget them, or mix them up. Its pretty annoying. I've seen a lot of people say that Aspergers was a boon for them when it comes to programming. Along with Aspergers, I have ADD, Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, SAD(I get depressed during winters), Bipolar and some perceptual learning disability I don't know the specifics of. I am immensely interested in technology, and its what I want to do with my life. However, I am giving up on programming, and now I feel kinda worthless. I am entrepreneurial, so in a hypothetical situation, I start a company, and then try raising capital. Time comes to trim the fat. I am an Aspie, so I have very little to no social skills - I am not fit for CEO(I guess?), I am not a programmer, I am not a designer(Although I obsess over design), I am not an economics person, so there would be no need for me in the company, or any company. I don't know what to do with my life anymore. My learning disabilities made it impossible for me to learn anything from school, so I dropped out, and I certainly can not go back, because I will fail. What should I do with my life? I love business, and I love being in charge. So far, my life's dream has been to be the CEO of a billion+ dollar company that I started. But I don't think anyone would want a Dyslexic/Dyscalulic CEO. I do not want to end up working as a programmer in someone else's company. I don't want to do anything in someone else's company(well, unless its a startup, because I am more concerned about making a difference, being in a place where what I do matters). What should I do with my life? I've tried career counseling, and I got suggestions for becoming a programmer, physicist, and that's about it. Any suggestions? Am I fit to be the CEO(of my own company obviously)? Can I/How Can I learn programming? Although I love designing, I have a very shaky hand, and design just doesn't come to me(I always end up ripping off someone else's design).

In order to learn programming, you need to have a clear idea of what is hampering your learning. If forgetting is your problem, seek out mnemonic aides. Of course, one of the best mnemonic aides is to do something a lot, which I assume you know is indispensable to being a good programmer. Take advantage of your learning style. If you are a visual learner, seek out some programming tutorials online or perhaps the Head Start tech book series (if available in your area). Make posters for the concepts and put them up in your home. Put sticky notes everywhere. Say things out loud as you are programming to help them stick in your brain.

I once read a memory improvement book in which it was suggested that the best way to memorize anything was to connect it to humor or sex (I assume that you could replace those with something that you personally think/care about a lot).

Do plenty of business and market research, I found its no good to have very unrealistic goals if the market for what I do is already saturated. I had the idea of founding a business system design business for start ups but the market is already a local and global saturated market, so only chance is to work in that type of business if i am given the chance to work at all with being taken seriously with Tourette's, Aspergers, Dyspraxia, dyslexia and chronic migraines and anxiety.

There are other positions in business, higher up of CEO I think are business owners or stakeholders that are the bosses of CEO's I think. They are in charge of employing CEO's, have the final word on high level decisions and finances.

I think the key with learning programming for me was being able to practically see code working. My strength with that though is Visual languages like VB and C#. Being able to see software functioning, rather than seeing code was a pivotal point in my own capability to code. Otherwise it's not my strength to code, dyslexia and problems with maths make that an issue. I'm more of a designer programmer and let another senior member of a team to devise the code against my designs and any client specifications.

You'll be surprised a lot of design in software is very similar to the same software of its kind, just different that follow on from human-computer interfacing principles, some things change with a clients specifications, code and aesthetic design to stand apart.

I've never been employed to be approved for a business loan to start a business, don't have the means to convince a bank, nor the business plan. Haven't been employed in 10 years so I'm realistically looking at any job that involves computers that isn't customer facing, part time and don't involve too much physical or mental exertion. I have been told that setting my interests with just computers are not reasonable expectations but I'm far too disabled to and long term ill be able to take on any and all types of job without issues.

it sounds like all the specific learning disabilities will be causing the issues with programming, it might be that will never be suited to it as deeply interested in it as may be, some people just have 'barriers' that are to big to get over and programming unfortunately doesnt have any workarounds apart from .NET programming via the API [which doesnt need any programming experience but sucks as .NET is specific to windows and isnt very future or backwards compatible].

am able to relate although we are from two different parts of the spectrum,am also intelectualy disabled.
had tried programming [.NET] for years but never got far with it,just made a highly basic web browser with a cat logo;no tabbing, adblock etc, the .NET API gives templates for various basic programs such as the browser so no skills are needed for a basic job].

the only suggestion can make woud be to find a person on a coding forum who is very tolerant and willing to act as a mentor, even better if find someone with a spLD so they will be able to understand the specific diffiiculties are facing.

having specific learning disabilities doesnt necesarily mean will never be able to do something,it just means a person has more barriers to accessing it, go read about the very famous and very rich richard branson, he was severely dyslexic and is a CEO, have a look at his wikipedia;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Branson


obviously its a long term goal but perhaps think about buddying up with a experienced 'bedroom coder' and inventing programming APIs for people with disabilities, or visual based web browsers for people with LD,ID etc, theres a lot of money in disability software and having the personal experience of disabilities is the best position to be in.

When I was 10 I decided I wanted to learn programming
When I was 20 I felt I finally had.

If you let the ideas marinate in your brain long enough, sooner or later they should start to make sense.

The biggest problem for me was when I looked for programming guides they tended to focus on computer language syntax and boring stuff like that. That crap doesn't teach you how to program. I wanted to know how a bunch of instructions so trivial and simple could actually do something complex and interesting. A computer is just a calculator that does lots of calculations very fast. And it never made sense to me how a bunch of calculations could equal something fun like a game you could play. But in those 10 years of trying to figure it out I learned.

I've tried everything from videos to books, nothing seems to have worked for me. I am good at Bash scripting, but that's about it. I couldn't even learn CSS(that's due to my dyscalculia/mathematical disability). I guess another problem is that I get bored pretty soon. There are a few things I can keep doing even after failing hundreds of times(one of them is starting companies), programming isn't one of them. I fit more into the inventor category. I can and have come up with great innovative ideas, but I cannot implement them on my own, and whenever I try getting outside help and trust anyone, they always end up cheating me.

@PerfectlyDarkTails Of course I will have a majority stake in my company, or otherwise shareholders can kick me out as CEO. I can identify with your designer programmer definition. I can design software, I can make a rough sketch of how things will work, which backend to use, and how to do stuff, but I can't go into the code. It's hopeless. Also, I've been approached by investors multiple times and I've literally been offered money for anything I do next regardless of what it is. So I can certainly go into more details technically than most other people, sometimes even programmers. Also, I am 16 years old.

@KingdomOfRats I've made a lot of software in .NET, and it sucks. I've thought about buddying up with a coder, but its hopeless. I have such terrible social skills, I go mute the moment someone even says hi or sup(and I hate it when someone says sup).

@@jerry00 Interesting. Do you have any of the same aneurotypicalities as me?

There's math involved in CSS? CSS as in Cascading Style Sheets?

I wrote my first computer game when I was only 7 years old. Now I work in Silicon Valley as a Senior Software Engineer for a popular website with over 20,000,000+ active users. Funny thing is, I never wanted to be a programmer. I just had a gift for it and picked it up very quickly.

I also taught some computer science courses at a local college a few years ago and know how hard some people struggle to learn programming. Some people, no matter how hard they try, just cannot grasp the concepts of it.

The good news is though, you don't need to be a programmer to achieve your dream of being a CEO of a company. I'm a great software engineer, but lack the social skills and business sense to ever start my own company. This is pretty common with software engineers and why we usually try to pair up with someone who is strong in the areas we're not.

If programming isn't for you, look into business classes and try to pair up with a strong programmer. I get MBA grad students pitching their ideas to me all the time. They're not programmers, so they try to find a business partner who is. I've worked with a lot of different Silicon Valley startups and the programmer-business combo is definitely the way to go. Think Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs starting Apple. It's a powerful combo.

I think the most important piece of advice I can give you is to never give up. Learning to program isn't easy and takes a long time to learn. Becoming the CEO of a company isn't easy and takes a lot of hard work. Just stick to it and never give up.