[andreas_g4]

Without any previous programming experience, is it possible to learn how to write applications for iPhone relying on Apple's ADC information?

Form a first glance, the ressources Apple's pulled together it look like that. The ADC section seems well organized, the provided documents look like they were written for human beings.

I have 15+ years of computer experience, I suck at maths (never needed it), but I can consider myself as fast learning and technically adept.

I am really excited about the future prospects of this new platform. Additionally, my current job allows me to make a relatively decent living, while giving me both time and mind to explore new things as well as great opportunities to make use of new skills and knowledge I acquire.

So what it comes down to is: Does one have to be a Stanford graduate in order to be able to get really good at programming or ist it possible with dedication and time?

As ridiculous or far fetched that may sound, this could be very well the direction of my life for the foreseeable future.

[CharlesS]

FWIW, I'm an auto-didact - everything I know about computers, programming, etc. I learned from my own private reading. So it can be done. I wouldn't presume to be able to, say, write an entire operating system by myself or anything, but for writing end-user apps, you can definitely get good enough to make some pretty nice stuff if you put an effort into it.

My recommendation: Start with a good book on C. From there, get a good book on Objective-C and Cocoa (Hillegass's book seems to get recommended a lot). I haven't studied the iPhone's SDK much, but it seems like it's based on Cocoa, so if you get started by learning Cocoa you should be in pretty good shape, I think.