I knew I wanted to learn to program in C. I also didn't know where to start, so I went to a book store. What I didn't know then is that all decent computer programming books are very expensive. I was in a lot of sticker shock, but determined, when I found a book called A Small C Compiler.
The back of the book said that it comes with a C compiler, and I didn't have one. The book said it explains the internals of the C language, and would give me instructions to add features to the C compiler that the book came with. I had no idea what that really meant, but I bought the book and dove in. I almost immediately got lost.
Of course, I learned much later that the book was about compiler design, which is a really advanced topic. Where I read "internals of the C language", I thought it would be showing how to actually use that language. Instead it was showing the internals of how that language is interpreted by a compiler. The one thing that the book did, though, was put an unnatural fear in me of causing something called a stack overflow.
Getting along with the technical folks helped me move to a technical role without actually knowing programming. What I had learned about telephone switching, and that I had read the manuals for some of the diagnostic equipment (even though I had never seen or touched it), got them to offer me a job on the Operations team when someone else quit.
I was really worried about what this role would mean, but I soon realized that what the job actually meant was watching for blinking lights (or reverse text on a monitor), identifying what the error was pointing to, and calling the right person to handle it. I was suddenly in a job where I was touching console on over 20 computers. The most important of these were Sun Solaris machines.
Norm was one of the computer programmers. He had a Sun workstation on his desk, and I really liked talking to him. Norm had worked at Bell Labs in New Jersey back in the 1960s when all the telephone stuff I was working with had first been invented. Knowing I was trying to learn programming, he bought me the book, Learn C in 21 Days.
More important than the book, Norm was patient while I asked lots of silly questions about things.
Some of the IT folks I was friendly with hooked me up with a compiler suite (Borland C). Though, learning C was still out of my capacity.