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Apple launches coding camps for kids in its retail stores

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141–150 of 184 posts

Re: Apple launches coding camps for kids in its retail stores

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By that logic Apple's users could have purchased cheaper non-Apple products and donated the remaining money to non-profits. This entire line of moral reasonsing just doesn't work. Charitable causes do not trump the entirety of the rest of human endeavour and for-profit entities are not intrinsically amoral.

> Charitable causes do not trump the entirety of the rest of human endeavour and for-profit entities are not intrinsically amoral. These are trivial near-tautologies addressing irrelevant and extreme positions. For example, some "charitable" causes are outright corrupt. > By that logic Apple's users could have purchased cheaper non-Apple products and donated the remaining money to non-profits. Most of us buy expensiv…

You're still not making sense. You seem to believe that Apple should not be running coding camps out of their stores, which exist whether or not they're used for coding camps. That's silly.

Re: Apple launches coding camps for kids in its retail stores

#144

Well, personally, I think the cookie-cutter "I'm surprised by the negativity here" comments at the top of every marginally controversial HN post are a bit surprising.

We've banned this account. Creating throwaway accounts to break the HN guidelines with is an abuse of this site.

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11948160 and marked it off-topic.

Re: Apple launches coding camps for kids in its retail stores

#145
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's still better than nothing. If Uncle Ben's rice donates its branded rice to victims of a natural disaster - provided the containers say "Uncle Ben's Rice" - would you refuse it for a generic?

Straw man - you misrepresent the argument. Uncle Ben's is merely a brand. After you've gotten used to one brand of rice, there is truly zero switching cost to switch to another brand.

Teaching a for/while/if loop in Swift is useless in all other languages \s

Re: Apple launches coding camps for kids in its retail stores

#146

Well, personally, I think the cookie-cutter "I'm surprised by the negativity here" comments at the top of every marginally controversial HN post are a bit surprising.

Yep, every fucking thread there's some "Oh wow, people have opinions that are different from mine" comment, and then a bunch of pseudo-meta discussion that just clogs up the site. HN is the worst possible implementation of HN.

You've repeatedly posted uncivil and unsubstantive comments to Hacker News. Please stop doing that.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html

Re: Apple launches coding camps for kids in its retail stores

#147
post #136

I am pretty surprised by the general lack luster comments bordering on negativity here. Personally, I think it is great to see a major retailer take even a misguided stab at improving child tech education which has quickly fallen behind demand (in America). Do I think the approach is more than a little bit wrong? Sure, GUI programming a non-useful task wouldn't be my choice. Would I prefer a more robust longer-term p…

I'm reading "Bringing up Bébé" – a book written by an American woman who raises her child in Paris. When they take their toddler girl to swim lessons, everyone is in the pool swimming around together. Occasionally the instructor swims up to them and says, "hello". Eventually, on the third class she finally says, "Excuse me, but when are you going to actually, you know, teach my kid to swim?". The instructor smiles an…

That's super interesting! I had no idea but definitely worth considering/knowing. Thanks!

Re: Apple launches coding camps for kids in its retail stores

#148
post #73

Another distressing characteristic of apple's tactics is that it increases social inequality. (Let's set aside those irrational SJWs that have arisen lately - there can be a rational approach to social justice). There are some pretty clear demographic divides in apple users vs everyone else. Apple could have donated to non-profits that especially serve under-privileged people, especially financially disadvantaged chi…

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11948160 and marked it off-topic.

Re: Apple launches coding camps for kids in its retail stores

#149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Charitable causes do not trump the entirety of the rest of human endeavour and for-profit entities are not intrinsically amoral. These are trivial near-tautologies addressing irrelevant and extreme positions. For example, some "charitable" causes are outright corrupt. > By that logic Apple's users could have purchased cheaper non-Apple products and donated the remaining money to non-profits. Most of us buy expensiv…

You're still not making sense. You seem to believe that Apple should not be running coding camps out of their stores, which exist whether or not they're used for coding camps. That's silly.

> You're still not making sense.

Maybe you could be more specific. You could ask pointed questions, or quote the line or lines which you find confusing.

> You seem to believe that Apple should not be running coding camps out of their stores, which exist whether or not they're used for coding camps. That's silly.

Apple is a machine for making money for their shareholders. They can do whatever they like, as long as it is legal.

Apple should emphatically not be praised for running coding camps out of their stores.

The fact that apple's stores exist regardless of whether coding camps are run has nothing to do with anything in this conversation. Maybe you thought someone was making an argument about the allocation of real estate resources?

Re: Apple launches coding camps for kids in its retail stores

#150
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Straw man - you misrepresent the argument. Uncle Ben's is merely a brand. After you've gotten used to one brand of rice, there is truly zero switching cost to switch to another brand.

Teaching a for/while/if loop in Swift is useless in all other languages \s

The existence of similar structures doesn't making switching costs zero, therefore the Uncle Ben's comparison remains a straw man fallacy.
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