科裏（Cory Althoff）在大學主修政治學畢業後，通過自學編程知識順利進入eBay，開啓瞭其軟件工程師的生涯。隨後他在矽榖工作多年，現已利用技術開始瞭自主創業。本書是作者根據個人成功經驗所作，專為所有想要自學編程的初學者準備；即便讀者並不想成為一名專業的軟件工程師，本書也會幫助每個人在其所屬的行業中運用編程技能來提升工作能力，提高工作效率。

I am a self-taught programmer. After a year of self-study, I learned to program well enough to land a job as a software engineer II at eBay. Once I got there, I realized I was severely under-prepared. I was overwhelmed by the amount of things I needed to know but hadn't learned yet. My journey learning to program, and my experience at my first job as a software engineer were the inspiration for this book. This book is not just about learning to program; although you will learn to code. If you want to program professionally, it is not enough to learn to code; that is why, in addition to helping you learn to program, I also cover the rest of the things you need to know to program professionally that classes and books don't teach you. "The Self-taught Programmer" is a roadmap, a guide to take you from writing your first Python program, to passing your first technical interview. I divided the book into six sections: 1. Learn to program in Python 3 and build your first program. 2. Learn Object-oriented programming and create a powerful Python program to get you hooked. 3. Learn to use tools like Git, Bash, regular expressions and databases. Then use your new coding skills to build a web scraper. 4. Study Computer Science fundamentals including computer architecture, data structures, algorithms and network programming. 5. Learn to program for production: I cover the software development process, testing, and best coding practices. 6. Finish with tips for working with a team and landing a programming job. You CAN learn to program professionally. The path is there. Will you take it?