That being said, I've actually had the same problem as you: finding good hackers is a hard problem, there aren't that many around. My solution was simply to learn to program, and I haven't regretted it. It's not as hard as you would think, and it's a lot easier to convince someone else to jump aboard your boat if you've done some work on a project yourself. It shows serious commitment.
What was your process for learning? Where/how did you start? What language? Did you focus on trying to build a small web-app? Did you seek and have mentors? Any other helpful advice/insight is much appreciated. Thanks
I did a number of increasingly difficult projects, and learned by doing them. The first ones didn't make it out to the public, but that wasn't the point.
My first project was simple HTML, just to find out exactly how a webpage works, how to upload files to a FTP server, etc.
My next project was some simple PHP - reading something from a database, having a user make changes to it, etc. I used PHP because once you understand HTML PHP is pretty simple. I installed WAMP (http://www.wampserver.com/en/) which has everything you need to start doing PHP. Also PHP is good for beginners since there is a huge community - whatever problem you have someone else will have had it before you.
Next I started doing sessions and more advanced stuff with PHP, javascript and Mysql (database). I actually made a Danish version of hacker news :-) (http://www.deloghersk.dk)
After 1½ years I'm getting pretty fluent, and would feel confident programming a lot of stuff you see on the net: blogging software, CMS software, etc.
I didn't have any mentors, Google was my only friend. I used this site a lot: http://www.w3schools.com It has some excellent and very simple tutorials on HTML, PHP, MYSQL, etc. to get you started.
One thing I have to say here: Do it. It's worth the effort. I regret not having learnt to program ten years ago, it would have made my life so much easier when dealing with technology. So even if you don't end up programming a lot it will help you tremendously in understanding and managing technology.
