What can I do as a junior in high school to best set myself up for success

First of all, the fact that you're thinking about such things now means you are in a great position already.

There are many introductory courses to programming. More or less any of them will do. Pick a language (python or js for now). Learn the syntax. Make some simple projects. Read some other projects on github. Then look into go, maybe c, a bit. Make some simple projects in go.

Then, go through the "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs" book and you will be in an amazing place. "A programmers introduction to mathematics" is also quite nice.

The most important thing is to do a bit every day and learn. You actually don't need to know very much to start working as a junior at most places. Going to uni would be a good idea. So you have ~6 years until employment, letting you learn a huge amount of things by then.


Perhaps install linux and starting with this (bash) could be nice. It's very simple and straight forward, so a good way to understand things. https://ryanstutorials.net/bash-scripting-tutorial/ Most software (servers, phones etc.) runs on linux, so it's important to know and fairly straight forward too.

/r/SoftwareEngineering Thread