I'm going to take point hits, but what about the opposite: why to AVOID it. For one, it's a dead-end job. On average you'll need to move into management or quasi-management to survive in IT. Even if you find a way to keep up with ever-changing programming fads, your fingers may likely give out. It may pay relatively well out of college, but your salary will mostly plateau. As leaked IBM emails show, IT hates old people. I'm just the jaded messenger.
Ask HN: What is the most compelling reason young people should learn to program?
81–90 of 122 posts
Re: Ask HN: What is the most compelling reason young people should learn to program?
#82The 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 goalpost…
Could you please explain how these tasks would improve quality of life for someone in another field? A doctor, mechanic, hairdresser, etc. I fail to see how these are as important as cooking or literacy (as it's been compared to elsewhere in the thread).
Re: Ask HN: What is the most compelling reason young people should learn to program?
#83Money. You'll make more money even in non-tech jobs if you can write scripts to automate stuff, or understand technical concepts to be able to articulate business needs to the tech team.
Re: Ask HN: What is the most compelling reason young people should learn to program?
#84Programming 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…
"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."
But it might lead to better academic performance, learning discipline and follow through, or they might decide to branch off in a related direction for fun (guitar, electronic production, etc).
Just my personal opinion, but sometime parents do know best (or better than a teen) and "forcing" a kid to do something outside their comfort zone can be good for them.
Re: Ask HN: What is the most compelling reason young people should learn to program?
#85Programming 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…
You just upset like half of Asia.
Re: Ask HN: What is the most compelling reason young people should learn to program?
#86Computational thinking has applications beyond coding, it helps you learn to make logical decisions, and to break down problems into component parts, solving those parts in sequence. It also helps you think about how you yourself make decisions and take actions.
That said, a child can learn these things using Scratch or Logo, and it is better to learn these things at a much younger age than 13! For teenagers I would look at algorithmically-generated 3D models (for printing) and robotics.
Re: Ask HN: What is the most compelling reason young people should learn to program?
#87Programming 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…
"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" And yet the beast, vast majority of kids who were forced to learn to play a musical instrument are grateful that their parents forced them to do it, even if they do not "take to it" i.e. 99.9% of kids. The ones who didn't get forced to learn an instrument regret missing out. As a parent you are buil…
I'm pushing 30. I took piano at a very young age and recall being quite happy to do so, though I had to be forced to practice. I voluntarily returned to it in my teens, and again in college. I sometimes wish I had put even more into it.
Conversely, I was forced to do many team sports as a child, despite never having an affinity for them, and even today have no love for them or those memories, and consider most of that to be wasted time. (And again conversely, the physical activities that I chose of my own volition - biking, roller blading, and the like - are things I wish I made more time for in my adult life)
Children, especially teens, aren't just grubs that you have to impose your will onto. They know things that they want, and you should channel them into productive things they actually want to do.
Re: Ask HN: What is the most compelling reason young people should learn to program?
#88And I'll go the other way - children should not be taught towards programming. After 20 years in front of a computer, I find that working in front of a computer is one of the worst jobs in the 21st century.
I'm sorry to hear your career isn't going well for you, but there are literally a thousand objectively worse jobs.
Re: Ask HN: What is the most compelling reason young people should learn to program?
#89The 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 goalpost…
Could you please explain how these tasks would improve quality of life for someone in another field? A doctor, mechanic, hairdresser, etc. I fail to see how these are as important as cooking or literacy (as it's been compared to elsewhere in the thread).
I think anyone would hope their doctor had a bit of proficiency in logical thinking! Thinking of medicine in terms of algorithmic logic and datasets goes a long way towards making proper diagnoses and developing competent treatment programs.
Same thing with auto mechanics (that actually involves computers these days, BTW) and even hairdressers could find some efficiency in optimizing their processes, which is another skill coding provides.
Re: Ask HN: What is the most compelling reason young people should learn to program?
#90The 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 goalpost…
Could you please explain how these tasks would improve quality of life for someone in another field? A doctor, mechanic, hairdresser, etc. I fail to see how these are as important as cooking or literacy (as it's been compared to elsewhere in the thread).
You're right in that it is a less immediately needed or important skill for most things. It comes down to whether you want to outsource the job or not. If you can change your own oil, you don't have to outsource it to a mechanic. Knowing how to do stitches saves you an ER trip. Hair is a weird one because I'd imagine it's hard to cut your own hair. The programming version of this would be writing a script that gets comps for listing real estate, and a realtor becomes less valuable. Spending a bit of time to really learn bash can get much more value out of using a computer. The window of problems to solve that don't already have a solution readily available is shrinking, but not gone. A personal example for me, I couldn't find a ballistic computer that was free and did what I wanted, so I wrote it myself. I've also written scripts that scrape ebay links when me and friends couldn't get the new xbox. These things don't move the needle very much in terms of quality of life on their own, but as an aggregate, I am grateful I took the time to learn how to really use my computer. You are right though, in pointing out that they aren't as important as cooking and literacy. I would only add that the importance on knowing programming is trending up with time.