Learning computer programming was the best thing I ever did for my job prospects.

Definitely better and orders of magnitude cheaper than getting a Math BA from a top-tier Liberal Arts college. Although that was more fun.

So much so that every job I've held has involved computer programming in some way.

this claim is especially true if you're a computer programmer!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow Rorek... EVERY job? You never had a crappy high-school job?

Sure, I had a crappy high-school programming job. I had to create a system to sign students into a computer lab using MS visual foxpro.

I'm sorry for your experience Rorek. Time heals all wounds.

holy crap MS visual foxpro!!!! ewwwww

I worked in FoxPro for DOS, eventually Windows, and finally Visual FoxPro. Dark times.

What is this "FoxPro" you people keep referring to? Is that kind of like working at Dairy Queen?

If "video games" count as "computer programming"

If I hadn't learned how to program, it's not unlikely that I'd be out looking for a job, instead of creating shit...

i like the name "foxpro"
it sounds like some kind of... never mind

i like the name "foxpro"

if i had a kid i might name it "foxpro"

IT'S A DOUBLE FEATURE

perl make me happy

I've delved into perl for some small but non-trivial things, but inline with this claim, perl is not something that I can see being overly valuable[1] to me as a consultant. Most folks I work for need PHP, RoR, Anything .NET and plenty of SQL. I've pushed a couple clients toward Open Source solutions and they are happy but most clients have IT shops that are firmly in the Microsoft mold so you'd better be good with IIS/.NET/SharePoint.

[1] I mean in a very direct way. Learning any language will make you a better programmer no matter if it's powerful or weak.