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Ask HN: It's 2022. Where should I direct the youths to learn about programming?

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Re: Ask HN: It's 2022. Where should I direct the youths to learn about programming?

#11

Post by Snowworm »

khadgar25 wrote: post #9

Perhaps approaching from the point of view of programming as a means to end might be helpful? If they have any hobbies or academic projects that could benefit from automation or using computers, that might be a good starting point? For example, when I started studying engineering, it was great to see solutions of differential equations and ways to solve them on computers. Others have suggested games which could be gr…

Yes, I completely agree. One thing I'll add as an example; I used programming as a way to learn about mathematical concepts too. I made a program to render an image of the Mandelbrot set, which helped me learn both some new things in JavaScript (what I was using) and mathematics (complex numbers and limits). You'll probably be able to find a similar sort of project for your son.

Re: Ask HN: It's 2022. Where should I direct the youths to learn about programming?

#15

Post by guessbest »

Rather than making him learn a language to build a simple, possibly tedious tool, let him figure out how the "social" side of the tech sector works by allowing to tool makers to explain the tools. There are lists like this on github. He doesn't have to be a computer hacker to get in to the industry.

https://github.com/bayandin/awesome-awesomeness

https://github.com/sindresorhus/awesome

Also, there is always nocode/lowcode solutions he can put together.

https://github.com/kairichard/awesome-nocode-lowcode

Re: Ask HN: It's 2022. Where should I direct the youths to learn about programming?

#16

Post by cinntaile »

catsarebetter wrote: post #10

Do you know what he wants to build? Probably has lots of different things that he wants to learn so help him explore each. Python for command line stuff and backend stuff, vanilla JS, html, css for blogs or web pages. There's also either online classes like Udemy or in person camps or summer programs that would be great, he can meet ppl his own age trying to code too. I know a few years back iOS coding classes were t…

I agree with the parent that the focus should probably be on something he wants to build or a problem he wants to solve. It's easier to stay motivated that way.

Re: Ask HN: It's 2022. Where should I direct the youths to learn about programming?

#18

Post by taurath »

> Maybe there was a let's do it all in javascript phase, but that doesn't seem to be the answer today.

Whats the child's actual goal though? Is it to be able to gain a useful workplace skill that will actually provide financial support for their lives (something that their peers who don't end up in tech will struggle with heavily)? If so web dev is honestly a really good path, and quite useful, and will touch on things they already know.

If they're a gamer see if they can make some mods - minecraft is good for it, but the best one is something they're already into.

If they care deeply about some world issue like say climate change, try to have him make some visualizations and do some data science on climate data to understand whats going on.

What you do with coding is imo a bit more important than how you code. Does the kid want to take apart toasters and put them back together again? What actually motivates them?

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