From the outset, I learnt programming by craving to build a thing. It started with tic tac toe that I built in vb6 in school, with computer as a player, sound and lighting effects. Then I built a full-disk media player/ image explorer hybrid. Followed by a multilingual word processor with screen reader and brail keyboard input and ...Finally full-stack web apps.
At the core of my learning was always a desire – that I wanted to build this thing, and rest was the details that I figured out from the internet and MSDN CDs (yes, that used to be my primary and definitive source during initial years of learning.)
In my experience, when I'm passionate about building something, I do not need to motivate myself to learn the details.
Edit: Finally I also did post graduation in CS to cover the gaps of CS fundamentals. Degree is also essential for getting a job at reputed companies which usually have it as the first filter to auto-reject candidates.
At the core of my learning was always a desire – that I wanted to build this thing, and rest was the details that I figured out from the internet and MSDN CDs (yes, that used to be my primary and definitive source during initial years of learning.)
In my experience, when I'm passionate about building something, I do not need to motivate myself to learn the details.
Edit: Finally I also did post graduation in CS to cover the gaps of CS fundamentals. Degree is also essential for getting a job at reputed companies which usually have it as the first filter to auto-reject candidates.