It really isn't starting over

A lot of what we have learned is transferable
Also, because of our prior experiences we can learn more easily
Don't discount the experiences you have had in solving programming problems in the past
Customer facing skills whether they are internal or external are hard won over time.

So much can be found on the internet these days.

I remember when I was trying to break into computers, I felt the urge to buy every book I saw.
Now what I do is I look around on the internet and then add the books that I am interested in to my Amazon wish list and then when I feel ready they are there and I can get them. This is a huge improvement for me.

As I have been going down my own learning path I try to keep an article I read many years ago in the Harvard Business Review in mind. It was titled something like "Why Smart People Can't Learn" The crux of the article was that they can't learn because what they "know" sometimes gets in the way of their learning new things. They sometimes must "unlearn" what they "know".

Lately, I have been plowing my way through a pile of ADO.NET books.
I remember reading though some of the methods and properties and thinking how similar it seemed to cursorset and cursorget in Fox. It certainly doesn't seem as overwhelming as when I was trying to tackle that in Fox.

I'm very glad I didn't jump on the Visual Basic 6 bandwagon being pushed by others.
I'm glad that I have solid Fox skills in my tool bag. It is a fully mature useful tool that has served me in ways I never dreamed it would at a time when I was absolutely certain I never wanted to use it again.

I feel the challenges of learning .NET are small compared to the challanges I faced trying to learn all of Fox when Microsoft came out with the incredibly buggy VFP 3.0. In hind sight I would say I kept at it only because at the time I didn't know any better, but I'm glad I did.

Shortly after you lost your job, essentially, according to the judge I "fired my employer for cause"
I see this as a blessng and a wonderful opportunity to step back and see what direction I want to take next

We can use the down economy to come back better and more productive than ever. :-)

Take care