How do I become an actual programmer? All I have experience

read a book

>>57950980
It's less about studying and more about doing.

Pick a specialization or two you find interesting. Could be OS kernels, machine learning, 3D graphics, anything really – just make sure it's something that interests you. Then, seek out open source code relating that subject. Pick it apart, get a feel for it. Try to make a rudimentary version of your own. Rinse and repeat. Each time you'll be notably better and eventually you'll approach a decent level of competency.

Studying is good as a supplement, but alone all it'll do is teach you inapplicable theory. That's fine if you want to be a computer scientist, but if you want to be a real engineer/programmer you're going to have to be able to build shit, and as it turns out the only way to learn how to build anything is to actually build the damned thing.

TLDR: Put down the books, analyze what's been built, and build something yourself. There's no teacher like real experience.

>>57950980
Explain to me the difference between a code monkey and a programmer, OP

>>57951560
The difference between a craftsman and a assembly line worker.

please OP im begging you with tears in my eyes, to read >>57951495 this is the most concise and on point post and answers the fundamental idea of your post.

>>57951577
So about a couple of centuries of technological and societal evolution then?