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82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding

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Re: 82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding

#101

Post by incadenza »

hobofan wrote: post #33
bazooka_penguin wrote: post #4

I wonder how much of brain elasticity in as adults is just due to attitude. I generally find kids more eager to jump into new things, while adults are more stubborn and complacent towards new experiences. Once you have money or kids it's a lot easier to just have someone else do it for you. Still, at 82 I imagine most people will start developing issues with memory so it probably isn't an easy feat, and she's found m…

I think it's not just about attitude, but also about having learning as a habit. I can't find it, but I recall an article in Science showing that Myelin production is increased when there is a continued demand for it (so Myelin production can be trained like a muscle to some degree). The higher-level interpretation was that since Myelin production is connected to brain elasticity and learning, that once you get over…

This kind of relates to the “neural Darwinism” idea. Or “use it or lose it” as it relates to certain behaviors. I don’t know if it’s true but it’s a useful way to think about it.

Re: 82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding

#102

Post by SilasX »

dahart wrote: post #23
always_good wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder the same thing trying to learn a new language. I notice the biggest difference between me and a child is that children don't care about messing up. Meanwhile I often have this worthless apprehension of "better not practice Spanish on these Spanish speakers, I might mess up and feel stupid." I tried to learn Spanish like I learned how to program. Now I'm living proof that you can become good enough to read bo…

I suspect adults learn languages a lot faster than kids, when we spend the same amount of time being exposed & practicing. All the polyglots say you have to be willing to mess up a lot and work to shed your fear of feeling stupid. In fact, try to seek it out because that's the primary way you get feedback & learn.

Right, I remember a Quora answer to the effect of: "If children pick up languages faster, it's just an artifact of how much more likely they are to be immersed in an environment of native speakers willing to put up with them and correct their errors; if you could get a group of native Spanish speakers to do the same to you as an adult, you'd pick it up quickly too."

(I've anecdotally heard stories of "gringos" picking up conversational Spanish just from working in the back of a restaurant with a Spanish-only staff.)

Re: 82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding

#103

Post by joering2 »

zpatel wrote: post #36

I made an app for 2 older folks (~75) who connected with me over the web. The high level idea and functional spec was provided by them. One of the main reason i helped them was because it was interesting to see someone at their age trying to change the world (a bit) positively through the use of software..

share the app!!

Re: 82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding

#104

Post by gowld »

beenBoutIT wrote: post #96
ataturk wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, you can have all the attitude you want, but I'm watching my mother wither away with dementia (she's 81). There's nothing attitude-wise that is involved there. It's just luck whether you can still do coding at 40,50,60,70+. You WILL reach an age where you will not be mentally capable of doing all the things you want to do whether that is coding or driving a car. Maybe science and modern medicine can save us, but i…

Out of curiosity, did she retire before the dementia or after? It's by no means scientific, but among all of the old people I know, the strongest predictor of dementia would be retiring. I haven't been able to find any studies on the relationship between stopping working and the onset of dementia, although it seems like working or keeping busy might somehow help stave it off.

Could pre-dementia cause people to be ineffective / uncomfortable at work, causing them to retire?

Re: 82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding

#105

Post by gowld »

dronescanfly wrote: post #51
gowld wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are some examples of successful businesses that launched and operate without person-to-person contact and negotiations? Purely automated online operations conceal identities, sure, but investors usually know who the entrepreneurs, and major clients and vendors and joint-venture partners do too.

Funny how a lot of people assume that companies can only ever work with investor money...

Did you mean to reply to a different comment?

Re: 82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding

#106

Post by mehrdadn »

jdietrich wrote: post #43
bazooka_penguin wrote: post #4

I wonder how much of brain elasticity in as adults is just due to attitude. I generally find kids more eager to jump into new things, while adults are more stubborn and complacent towards new experiences. Once you have money or kids it's a lot easier to just have someone else do it for you. Still, at 82 I imagine most people will start developing issues with memory so it probably isn't an easy feat, and she's found m…

I think that openness and confidence are major factors. Having taught older adults to use computers, one of the major difficulties is getting them past the fear that they might "break" the computer and the need to memorise rote instructions rather than experiment with the interface. The body language is quite distinctive - tentatively pressing keys with an outstretched index finger as if the keyboard might jump up an…

> Having taught older adults to use computers, one of the major difficulties is getting them past the fear that they might "break" the computer

This is the exact same problem I've always had many times when tinkering with electronics, so I can wholeheartedly understand it. Fortunately with computers you can pretty much promise laymen that any problem they cause fixable with no cost (except time), but in the case of electronics I find it much more difficult to overcome the fear that I might actually physically fry something and need to buy a new one. Anyone have tips for that?

Re: 82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding

#107

Post by supreme_sublime »

Ancalagon wrote: post #81
octorian wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen these exact behaviors countless times, ever since I was the "kid who knows computers" (in the 90's) trying to walk adults through using them. Oh, and when you ask them to "look at the screen", they're only mentally able to process a 2-square-inch "window area" at any given moment. So you first have to direct their gaze, very specifically, before you can actually expect them to read and process anything. (Of…

As an engineer myself, I'd say one of the harder aspects of my job is using all the freaking GUIs and interfaces presented to me. Granted, I wouldn't consider many of these interfaces to even be considered "good" by most standards, but so many designs are unintuitive I really think thats the root of the problem.

It is tough because there definitely are people who are very nervous about trying things on a computer. We just had a lady today worried about using a Mac as she is used to Windows. It is a slightly different paradigm in terms of finding programs and I remember being a bit lost at first. But I also have confidence with computers and am okay with trying things and searching for how to do things.

If you lack that basic curiosity and courage, I don't really know how "intuitive" anything can be. Isn't "intuition" driven by understanding concepts behind things? The best way to get that intuition is through a bit of instruction and a lot of experimentation.

Re: 82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding

#108

Post by cdelsolar »

zargon wrote: post #86
combatentropy wrote: post #16

A point of clarification: "She's been dabbling in the tech field since the age of 60." Still impressive though! Also, the app isn't described until 3/4 into the article: "The app, based on the annual Japanese doll festival of Hina Matsuri, invites players to arrange 12 ornamental dolls --- representing the country's emperor, family and guests --- in a specific order."

The article goes on to define "dabbling in the tech field" as buying a computer and creating Excel art.

and also CODING A PHONE APP IN SWIFT

Re: 82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding

#109

Post by mehrdadn »

dahart wrote: post #65
octorian wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen these exact behaviors countless times, ever since I was the "kid who knows computers" (in the 90's) trying to walk adults through using them. Oh, and when you ask them to "look at the screen", they're only mentally able to process a 2-square-inch "window area" at any given moment. So you first have to direct their gaze, very specifically, before you can actually expect them to read and process anything. (Of…

As much as I'd agree with the symptoms you guys are describing when it comes to my parents and grandparents, I don't think this is much of an age problem at all. The same thing happens to my kids when I present them with a bash shell. They don't understand how to read the instructions, and they're uncomfortable with text commands. They don't want to type 'man' or 'help', and they give up very quickly. Everything they…

> The same thing happens to my kids when I present them with a bash shell. They don't understand how to read the instructions

Uhm, the issue here is squarely on Bash's end, not your kid's. Even the Windows command prompt is far more intuitive to learn. I know because I vividly remember how much more confused I got when learning the former.

In Windows, when you type "help", it actually gives you helpful commands: COPY, MOVE, DEL, REN/RENAME, etc. and at least the basic commands are actually what you'd expect. At least you have a foothold somewhere that you can ground yourself, and you start learning a bit more every time.

Try that in Bash, and good luck learning out how to do anything in Bash on your own. Oh, you want help? I gotchu! I'm guessing you're looking for job_spec, bg, compopt, coproc, disown, shopt, or trap? Oh I'm so sorry, you said all you wanted was to just copy a file? Haha I'm just a shell! You can't expect me to know how know what it means to "copy" a file! I can't even find that command! But if you need help, type "man -k" (what kind of a name is that??) to find out more about other commands. Oh, so you typed "man -k"? Okay, "apropos what?"??? (You, thinking to yourself: is 'apropos' even an English word?? I literally just typed in man -k like they told me to, and I got back a question I don't understand...) And on and on and on, until weeks later you realize the darn command was helpfully named 'cp' and not 'copy'...

Re: 82-Year-Old Japanese Woman Finds Success in Coding

#110

Post by astura »

oceanman888 wrote: post #99
pimlottc wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In case you're not aware, you're being downvoted for "Jap". Perhaps you were just abbreviating "Japanese", but it's considered offensive.

That is good to know, I am not from the states. I thought Jap was abbreviate for Japanese what have the internet done to me lol.

"Jap" only became an ethnic slur in American English during/due to World War II.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jap

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