alt Hacker NewsThis period latest until the mid 00s. I remember trying to learn Java in the early 00s and it was really hard and I needed a textbook.
No blogs, no SO, no autocomplete, crappy IDEs, no AI, etc...
I miss that difficult focused learning. The smallest successes felt like huge accomplishments.
I remember using usenet newsgroups (outlook express anyone :-) The Wrox books had a mailing list where you could reply or ask questions by email... I used those a lot.. in the beginning to ask and in the end I was answering more and more