Why I Believe Scratch Is the Future of Programming • Hacker News Board

Re: Why I Believe Scratch Is the Future of Programming

#61

Post by dwaltrip » Fri, Dec 09, 2016, 2:02 AM UTC

mrob wrote: post #57

onion2k wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have no evidence for that, and it's a pretty horrible thing to say about the people who take those courses.

What's horrible about that? People doing things for the money is the driving force behind capitalism, the best economic system yet invented. It improves everybody's quality of life. I have no objection to people going to coding boot camps because they think it will help them make money, and I hope they succeed. But I don't think coding boot camps are evidence for great love for coding for its own sake. People who rea…

Seriously? Paying to learn a skill is a sign of impure motives? That seems like a very unfair assumption. Not everyone can learn on their own in their spare time.

Re: Why I Believe Scratch Is the Future of Programming

#62

Post by dwaltrip » Fri, Dec 09, 2016, 2:06 AM UTC

StavrosK wrote: post #46

onion2k wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by "opportunity"? If you were unfortunate enough to attend a school that didn't have any sort of computing classes, after school groups, etc, or you lived somewhere rural that didn't have those programmes outside of school then you would have had no access to a mentor who can guide you. If they have 3 months to go to a camp, surely they could as well learn at home for those 3 months. In order to lear…

> If you were unfortunate enough to attend a school that didn't have any sort of computing classes, after school groups, etc, or you lived somewhere rural that didn't have those programmes outside of school then you would have had no access to a mentor who can guide you. I grew up in a small Greek village at a time when very few people knew what a computer was. My first exposure to programming was finding a CD with a…

Be careful when projecting your experiences onto others.

I would be very surprised if you honestly can't conceive of people who would struggle immensely to teach themselves the way you did. Or even if they could succeed in doing so, that it might take too long or be too financially risky.

I personally know plenty of people like that. Some of them are very intelligent as well.

Re: Why I Believe Scratch Is the Future of Programming

#63

Post by StavrosK » Fri, Dec 09, 2016, 11:16 AM UTC

dwaltrip wrote: post #62

StavrosK wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you were unfortunate enough to attend a school that didn't have any sort of computing classes, after school groups, etc, or you lived somewhere rural that didn't have those programmes outside of school then you would have had no access to a mentor who can guide you. I grew up in a small Greek village at a time when very few people knew what a computer was. My first exposure to programming was finding a CD with a…

Be careful when projecting your experiences onto others. I would be very surprised if you honestly can't conceive of people who would struggle immensely to teach themselves the way you did. Or even if they could succeed in doing so, that it might take too long or be too financially risky. I personally know plenty of people like that. Some of them are very intelligent as well.

People are reading more into my comment than what I said. The GP said you can't learn to program without a mentor or access to resources, and I suggested that you can, to which he both agreed and disagreed.

Re: Why I Believe Scratch Is the Future of Programming

#64

Post by thinkMOAR » Fri, Dec 09, 2016, 2:25 PM UTC

danso wrote: post #37

thinkMOAR wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That plus the word 'believe' in the title. If i simply had to accept what others believe as to be the truth...

Huh? That's kind of an unfair criticism. The word "believe" is more or less an explicit expression from the author that the article is, well, his belief. As a programmer, I like explicit declaration when reading someone else's "code". The fault is more with you, for automatically associating the phrase "I believe" with implicit brainwashing.

That is what you are doing yourself now. Dictionary however states something different,

believe bɪˈliːv/ verb 1. accept that (something) is true, especially without proof.

Re: Why I Believe Scratch Is the Future of Programming

#65

Post by richmarr » Wed, Dec 14, 2016, 11:38 AM UTC

cocktailpeanuts wrote: post #60

richmarr wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arguing that people who don't already code shouldn't code assumes people make perfectly informed career choices based on their pre-determined personal traits. I strongly recommend reading Dweck's work on mindsets to dissuade you of the belief that aptitude for things like Mathematics is a fixed trait rather than something that can be changed. I think it's also helpful to recognise that the group that are exposed to p…

> Arguing that people who don't already code shouldn't code I'm sorry, I'm having hard time finding where I said that. Please do point me to an excerpt.

> I'm sorry, I'm having hard time finding where I said that. Please do point me to an excerpt.

Cool. This (below) was the bit I must have misunderstood. It read as if you were saying that coders naturally find coding, and that people who don't naturally find coding are better off not coding.

"People who will code will code even if you don't push them to. And most others, well they have other better things to do in their lives like making art, becoming a scientist, or becoming a doctor."