Originally Posted by irbobo

first give up all your social existence and contact with humanity for at least 3 months. Leave yourself with nothing more then an 8088 with an amber screen and gwbasic running on an old outdated dos (2.1) or some shit. No hard drive allowed. Nothing more than simple storage to make sure you stay geared to the task. Actually make that a CGA with a CGA Monitor hooked up. Good for graphics mode in gwbasic. Pick up a copy of http://www.amazon.com/GW-BASIC-Self-...2676578&sr=8-1 and then literally ship yourself to a remote cabin with no net connection. When you get back you will have a keen understanding of programming.

Another kick ass thing you might want to take on the trip:

Some BasicA books on games you can enter in. Or try to convert some commodore 64 games into GWBasic. Download source code. By simply figuring out the basics and advancing into a general understanding of the concept, the world is open to you.