&#62;&#62; <i>Why is everyone in such a rush?</i><p>Because everybody has different goals. Although many programmers seek to become masters of their craft, I suspect many more look at programming as a tool to be used in furthering some other pursuit. Those who see it as a tool are understandably better-served by "Learn C Before Dinner!" books than they are by a 10-year program.<p>This reality may be frustrating to experienced coders. It results in legions of sloppy programmers producing piss-poor code. It is, however, reality. And I'm not sure it's such a bad thing. Most of the people I interact with don't know a thing about computers -- I'm pleasantly surprised when I talk to someone who's had a run-in with some programming, no matter how brief.