What a negative message- not unlike the, "Don't be an Entrepreneur" talk from last week. I don't understand these high profile, obviously successful people with public personas being all, "Don't try to do what I did," thinking that will resonate.
Please don't learn to code
151–160 of 273 posts
Re: Please don't learn to code
#152Same reason as why programmers need to take course in sales.
Re: Please don't learn to code
#153I really, really disagree with Jeff Atwood here. Jeff has interpreted "learn to code" with "become a programmer". They're not the same thing. I don't think that is what this meme is about at all. Programming is logical thinking in practise. Programming is breaking a problem set down, thinking step by step through it, thinking of edge cases, and making it work. There is nothing wrong with Jeff's BASIC example, if that…
With a couple of months of programming knowledge, I wrote a program that saved my company $2MM/year. The key was combining knowledge of the business processes with some knowledge of programming. There were people with knowledge of one or the other, but not both. I still can't write a basic app, but that doesn't matter. I can do things that provide massive value, and I wouldn't be able to do them without programming k…
I agree with this wholeheartedly. My line of work could be made much easier through some very simple software. The only reason that software doesn't exist is because (I assume that) nobody with programming knowledge understands the needs of someone who does my job. Or cares, for that matter. There aren't many of us.
I'm working my way through Ruby on Rails tutorials simply because I think there's tremendous value to be created without the need for anything groundbreaking. Just tailored.
And if I'm right, I'll be able to afford to hire someone to fix my crappy code.
Re: Please don't learn to code
#154I really, really disagree with Jeff Atwood here. Jeff has interpreted "learn to code" with "become a programmer". They're not the same thing. I don't think that is what this meme is about at all. Programming is logical thinking in practise. Programming is breaking a problem set down, thinking step by step through it, thinking of edge cases, and making it work. There is nothing wrong with Jeff's BASIC example, if that…
I couldn't agree more. If nothing else, learning to code is an incredibly useful thought experiment for anyone who enjoys using their brain in new and interesting ways. So what if you never make a cent? How many of us started coding simply because we were passionate about it and it got us excited?
I can't tell you how excited I was when I wrote a simple joystick driven paint program for my Atari 400 in Atari BASIC :)
Re: Please don't learn to code
#155Thinking that everyone should learn to code is an absurd idea. Most folks can barely use their computer, let alone care to program. A good percentage of web designers can't write markup, do you think my mom is going to fire up a shell?
Perhaps teaching some basic digital fluency is a more realistic goal, e.g., the role of computers in society, a primer on hardware, basic security, etc.
Re: Please don't learn to code
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well said. I wholly agree with "learn to code" != "become a programmer". Learning programming has helped me in many other walks of life. It has taught me that every problem can be tackled with a systematic approach, given enough time. I like to think that helps me to notice things that would have gone unnoticed without. More than anything else, it is this approach, enforced by programming, for which I hold gratitude.…
I see ... so we're watering down the profession to the point where it is all inclusive. Can I start calling myself a doctor the next time I administer first aid?
To turn your statement around, are you saying that no one should bother learning first aid unless they are planning on becoming a medical professional?
Re: Please don't learn to code
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
With a couple of months of programming knowledge, I wrote a program that saved my company $2MM/year. The key was combining knowledge of the business processes with some knowledge of programming. There were people with knowledge of one or the other, but not both. I still can't write a basic app, but that doesn't matter. I can do things that provide massive value, and I wouldn't be able to do them without programming k…
I agree with this wholeheartedly. My line of work could be made much easier through some very simple software. The only reason that software doesn't exist is because (I assume that) nobody with programming knowledge understands the needs of someone who does my job. Or cares, for that matter. There aren't many of us. I'm working my way through Ruby on Rails tutorials simply because I think there's tremendous value to…
If you are right there are probably a hundred people on here able to provide a working MVP alongside you and do it faster, cleaner and pick up on solutions you cant possibly know yet. Be a domain expert.
But learn to code anyway :-)
Re: Please don't learn to code
#158I think the whole everyone should learn to code this is right, but a little ahead of its time. A little like saying that peasant farmers in the bronze age should learn to read and write. While 100% literacy is now acknowledge as a good thing it took a while to get here. A farmer these days absolutely needs to read and write. But a bronze age farmer? Not so much. I personally think that one day it will be impossible t…
I strongly agree with you that data manipulation is becoming the new essential literacy of the information revolution, as reading, writing, and 'rithmetic were to the industrial revolution. As the basis of economic value shifts from materials to information, the people who can best manipulate information will be best positioned to succeed.
An important point to note here is that this skill must come on top of industrial-age skills like the "3 Rs". You have to know reading, writing, and math so that you know what to code (which matters more than the code itself, really).
That said, I think you might be underestimating the speed at which data and coding is permeating various industries. The finance industry has almost totally converted...the head of JP Morgan has boasted, for instance, that they employ more programmers than Microsoft.
Even in politics, most significant campaigns now devote a lot of programming and IT resources to gathering and analyzing information about potential supporters and voters.
Re: Please don't learn to code
#159Please learn to code. Also, learn to change your oil and maybe your spark plugs; learn to cook; learn to replace buttons on your shirts; learn to fix your leaky sink and plunge your toilet; learn to plant flowers and tomatoes; milk a cow; shovel some dirt; experience driving a tractor, both the kind in a field and the kind that pull tons of cargo down the expressway ...
Get out of your comfort zone, live for a minute in someone else's shoes and maybe, just maybe, you'll learn to respect the work that other people do and be willing to pay them for it - they deserve to be paid for their Work. Yes, sitting behind a desk all day bringing brainpower to bear on saving the company money is Work. Driving 11 hours a day is Work. Grilling that steak and walking it to your table is Work. It's all Work because it takes us away from our families, because it's so well regulated that it adds stress, because we'd rather be doing other things but the bills have to be paid (i.e. we have to pay other people for the Work they do keeping our lights on, our Internet connected and our water reasonably clean.)
So, please, learn to program. Then, when you need software built, you'll know why you hired me for "so much" and how much trouble I'm saving you.
Re: Please don't learn to code
#160I'll leave the part of "coding is important because computers are everywhere and learning how to automatize everyday things is a great skill" to others, as there are lots of excellent comments about it in this thread. Let's talk about something different: > But understanding variables and functions, pointers and recursion? I can't see it. Hey, I'd argue that understanding exactly those things are what should be inclu…
Bottomline, programming teaches us a lot of important skills and mental constructs useful for problem-solving and understanding how the world works. And those skills are hard to get elsewhere. I definitely support the notion that everyone should learn problem solving skills, but people can take different paths than programming: mathematics, natural sciences, and even chess, for example. As Richard Rusczyk, founder of…
> I definitely support the notion that everyone should learn problem solving skills, but people can take different paths than programming: mathematics, natural sciences, and even chess, for example.
I agree, though you'd have to go far over the school level of maths to get such benefits. Also, given that CS is a part of math, you can't avoid it if you want to learn some mental structures - we actually DID invent a new way of thinking in the last 100 years. And CS should be, in my opinion, tangled with programming, for a mortal to understand it and have fun with it at the same time.
So, in other words, by all means study math, but catching a bit of CS knowledge and programming skills at some point should be a natural consequence of it.