I'll echo most of the advice already given here, but because your an econ major, I'll add something else just for fun: Try to do a research project or paper or whatever on some trend in the IT industry, like the history of the OS market or even the respective market territories of different programming languages. This won't teach you to hack, but it may help you set priorities as you learn, and it will help you if you attempt a startup.
I'll echo most of the advice already given here, but because your an econ major, I'll add something else just for fun: Try to do a research project or paper or whatever on some trend in the IT industry, like the history of the OS market or even the respective market territories of different programming languages. This won't teach you to hack, but it may help you set priorities as you learn, and it will help you if you attempt a startup.