If you have ever had a desire to learn computer programming, starting from the ground up, this may be the lecture for you. According to the lecturer:

We designed this course not assuming that anyone has ever programmed before. There is no background information assumed, no background knowledge or skill assumed.

The lecture starts at 8:00 with an introduction (the first 8 minutes is spent waiting for class to begin):

It is just like being back in college (if you are older), or this is just what college will be like (if you are younger). If you want to go directly to the meat, where he starts teaching something, go to…

Lecture 2

…and either listen through the first 4 minutes or skip it.

This is random, but at the beginning of Lecture 2 he talks about Kurt Vonnegut. At lunch today, completely by coincidence, I read this by Kurt Vonnegut:

HARRISON BERGERON

Anyway, the programming language he is teaching is called C, and you can learn more about C here:

How C Programming Works

In lecture 1, the instructor spends a little time talking about the joys of learning new things and solving problems, and also the joy of bugs. One thing you discover as you are learning to debug programs is the fact that many things go much deeper than you would expect, and a deep understanding is the only way to completely solve a problem. Here is a great example of that with something that seems simple – a URL:

What Every Developer Should Know About URLs

Most of all, when programming – Have fun! It can be a lot of fun, as the instructor describes.