Progression - Game/Graphics development (Training the brain)
An essential part of any kind of career is the part of progression. I am a firm believer in setting goals for yourself. They must be reasonable though and through that the sky is really the limit.
I suggest that anyone in the field of game/graphics programming look at games that you play and try and figure out what effects you like and try an implement them. These are excellent exercises for training your brain to look and duplicate/recreate/improve effects that you have seen.
Also.. a very important part of development progression is if you don't have money to buy books really start looking at opensource game projects and learn how to look through and study large code bases. If you plan on making a career out of this it's excellent practise and should help you in the long run. I was really busy this week with cirricular activities but this coming week I shall provide you with some much needed updates on my tutorials and another release of my framework to work with. Stay tuned cause I also have that tutorial I am working on and an excellent study of the sample framework.
Have a fantastic day ladies and gentlemen