I emailed DHH. Founder of Basecamp, 37signals, HEY. I asked him how I should learn to code.

A lot of respect — the dude replied. I probably wouldn't have. He pointed me at Learn Enough to Be Dangerous, the Ruby on Rails program they taught. I put a lot of effort into it.

That's the whole lesson. The people whose products you actually use will sometimes write back. The email is not the win. Opening the editor is.

After I did the work I realized: my foot is already in this technical world. I want to go deeper.

You don't get a career from one reply. You get a first step. DHH didn't give me a map. He gave me enough to be dangerous. Then you walk.

Learn enough to be dangerous. Your foot is already in.