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Ask HN: What is the most compelling reason young people should learn to program?

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Re: Ask HN: What is the most compelling reason young people should learn to program?

#71

Post by lexapro »

digitalsushi wrote: post #34

How does one instill a value with a young person a concept that takes half a life to discover? I overuse 'flossing' as an analogy for anything that takes a long time to appreciate the value of. I've tried to promote flossing with various narratives - that its prideful, that it steals money from dentists, that it's the last people do but the first they should. I always figure that the floss analog is falling flat, tha…

The evidence for flossing is pretty weak. I think it's mostly an American thing, kinda like circumcision (when compared to Europe). I never flossed even once in my life and don't know anyone who did. (I'm not suggesting that's a reason not to do it!)

Re: Ask HN: What is the most compelling reason young people should learn to program?

#73

Post by [deleted] »

tetraca wrote: post #63

If they aren't themselves drawn to and captivated by the medium, then they simply shouldn't be here. They should be somewhere they actually care about instead. You could maybe set something up that would pique their interest (modding a video game, a robotics project, automating some bit of rote math homework they hate), and if it does, take that lead and support them in any way you can. Otherwise, it's just proselyti…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What is the most compelling reason young people should learn to program?

#75

Post by Consultant32452 »

I see lots of answer about the teenager's interests. I really dislike answers like that. No one says that to people about other highly technical fields like electrician.

The answer is if you have an appropriate IQ and big 5 personality traits (high conscientiousness, low anxiety, etc) it can be a lucrative career.

Tightly coupling programming to video games is going to scoop up too many kids who will be fucking miserable as a programmer.

Re: Ask HN: What is the most compelling reason young people should learn to program?

#76

Post by idiotsecant »

photochemsyn wrote: post #56

Programming is difficult, and forcing young people to do something difficult that they don't find intrinsically interesting and compelling is mostly a waste of time and effort. Just because a parent wants their child to be able to play the piano with great skill doesn't mean they'll take to it. However, learning to use computers for relatively simple tasks and as an aid in other areas makes a lot of sense. Take the c…

It's not unusual for teenagers to now know that a thing is interesting for them until they find a way in which it intersects with their interests. The game genie was a gateway drug to programming for me, just like I'm sure minecraft is a gateway drug to programming for a lot of kids today. Programming isn't some mystical oracle that draws the worthy towards it - it's just another task that some kids might not know they enjoy until they find the right context to enjoy it in.

Re: Ask HN: What is the most compelling reason young people should learn to program?

#77

Post by alas_141 »

The layman should learn to program the same way that they should know how to cook. They won't be as good as someone who is fascinated with CS, but they should know enough that they won't "starve". To me, everyone should know how to script a basic program (maybe snake or tetris is the line for basic), scrape for some information, and do basic data analysis. As tooling gets better all the time, I could see the goalposts moving a bit to standing up a server or making a basic AI. Just like not knowing how to use Google in the 2000's would handicap you, I see programming knowledge the same way. You can survive without it, but the quality of life you'd enjoy would be much higher for knowing it.

Re: Ask HN: What is the most compelling reason young people should learn to program?

#78

Post by Diggsey »

elzbardico wrote: post #66

The only valid reason is that you'd like to know how to program a computer. Nobody ever expected me to be able to learn to do surgery, plant stuff, design buildings or whatever. Programming is not basic literacy. Let's stop pretending it is.

There are a ton of "programming-adjacent" jobs where having some programming knowledge is very useful if only to communicate effectively with engineers. Those jobs are often quite well paid as well compared to similar jobs at non-tech companies.

ie. if you want to get a well paying job doing what you love, then learning to program might be an important part of that even if programming is not what you love.

Re: Ask HN: What is the most compelling reason young people should learn to program?

#79

Post by ssivark »

Forget the "tech industry". Even if they're just "browsing the web" and using "apps", they are constantly being shunted & nudged around by code that someone else wrote. A little proficiency in being able to tweak and control that environment they are immersed in will go a long way towards enhancing their human agency.

As computers+algorithms become increasingly ubiquitous and powerful, being able to understand and use them effectively is as important as reading and writing -- not understand this is equivalent to being illiterate in an information society. Modern society/civilization considers literacy & numeracy so damn important that it is (at least nominally) willing to sit all its youth in an educational environment for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for 10+ years in the hope that enough of the three Rs (Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic) rub off on them. IMHO, computing is right up there in importance -- only we as a society might take decades to come to terms with that and learn how to equip people well.

Re: Ask HN: What is the most compelling reason young people should learn to program?

#80

Post by dangerface »

mhitza wrote: post #35

Because it's a form of literacy. If they don't want instinctively to learn is because educational institutions aren't making it interesting or engaging. It's important because it allows us to instruct computers to do things on our behalf. The only infinitely versatile tool in human history. Why should they only use their computer for browsing & word processing?

I was taught cursive because it was a form of literacy literally never used it outside of school.

I have been coding since I was 6 and the only useful thing I have done with it was my job that I like and pays well, I also wrote a script that organised my mp3s very handy.

Mp3s don't exist and I could have probably found an app for it anyway, if I wasn't naturally motivated to liking computers and code I wouldn't like my job and would have found little other use for code.

Learning to code is a huge time and energy commitment that worked out great for me personally but if I didn't like code I would hate all this and find it completely useless. Joining a sports team or an after school group would have given me other skills like interpersonal skills that are important because it allows us to communicate and get others to do things on our behalf.

If a child doesn't like the path we took they wont find the success or joy we found in it, don't force them down that path.

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