Thinking like a computer scientist.

I think we can all agree that programming is easy. Thinking like a computer scientist on the other hand is extremely difficult.

How long would you say it takes someone to get up to a proficient level? Should they keep challenging themselves to write small scripts to learn something new every time?

I find it quite difficult to come up with things to program, and when I do they're too ambitious and I find I don't have the skill to do it, mostly because I wouldn't know how to break it up into smaller, feasible chunks.

Do you ever have this problem? If yes, then how did you overcome it?

>>1
Yes, I know that problem very well.

Look, it might seem too hard in the beginning, but the more you challenge yourself, the stronger you become.

Also, ``Read SICP'' is not a troll. Actually, it is when those fools blindly post it in every thread without even reading its OP. But - Since you say programming is easy (implying you have some skills at least), you will be able to understand SICP. So by all means, go ahead and read it.

http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/

If you find SICP too hard, try this out:

http://www.htdp.org/2003-09-26/

Both books will use Scheme. If you're unfamiliar with functional programming, it might look a bit strange to you, but trust me, it's fun to learn.

Currently the best Scheme implementation for Windows is Racket, download it from here:

http://racket-lang.org/