i do have to admit to you all: it's not me who came up with this phrase. a song by heather nova is called like this. and some few days ago, i kinda felt this virus.

Virus, what virus? Do you mean constantly niggling at how to do some bit of coding, while doing other things, like shopping or whatever?

yes, that's exactly what i mean by it. i'm kind of schrizophrenic about that: one part of me wants to be present at the other things i'm at and the other part really likes (and thinks it's cool :) )being still busy with the code.

well no, afaik it's not the 2nd programming language to learn. he tried out all kinda things (asp, php, vb). but i do not have any information about how seriously he was into them.

i do believe, learning is about posing questions. being able to pose questions to people who might know some things about the problem i'm into (like i'm doing in here). another way is, trying to solve every little thing on your very own. maybe that's the harder and more frustrating way to go - and it is, what he's doing. he doesn't like to pose questions and get hints by others how he could solve a prob. hm. yes, maybe he thinks he should already know everything.