Development is a term used for software writing... Since building is already taken for another function :D. I dont know why on this forum dev = hacker.
If you want to hack, you can start reading here:
http://www.ps3devwiki.com/index.php?title=Main_Page
Learning how to program, wont get you in the right direction I know a bunch of languages and it doesn't help me **** in the ps3 hacking department, since you have to understand how the ps3 system works and its mostly reverse engineering.
Wiki is probably the best place to start. But if you dont know anything about computers it will be hard reading something you just dont understand :D.