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Please Learn to Code

sachagreif.com

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Re: Please Learn to Code

#71

Post by j_s »

trustfundbaby wrote: post #56

I think everybody should learn to do basic medical procedures, for one simple reason: knowing how to do it is hugely empowering. Quite a few people don't have the time or the inclination to sit down and learn how to code, and to keep making like its really simple is kind of silly. I took my first programming class in Java many years ago, and even on basic things like operators and variables, half of the class was com…

Drifting off on your carefully-tagged tangent: Basic medical procedures like CPR, the Heimlich Maneuver, using an epipen, applying a tourniquet, etc. ?

Re: Please Learn to Code

#72

Post by tedunangst »

T-zex wrote: post #35
nicholassmith wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please justify why you think it's a bad comparison? I think it's apt. Cooking shares many qualities with coding, you're under time deadlines to produce something for a end consumer (for the most part). There's lots of competing methods and you have to select which ones work best for the product you want to produce. Most importantly you can cook something amazing that everyone loves, or a charred lump that no one will…

Cooking is way more simple compared to programming. The recipes are easily understood - a complete opposite to software specs. Cooking does not evolve that fast compared to programming. Everybody loves their grandma's pie. And most important cooking is manufacturing and programming is designing. Regular cooking is trying to reproduce something that was done as close as possible, while programming involves dealing wit…

Please do not compare cooking to heating up food...

Re: Please Learn to Code

#73

Post by groovy2shoes »

VolatileVoid wrote: post #42

I'm actually kind of tired of hearing, "there's no other field that lets you create something from nothing" vis a vis programming. Look: I LOVE coding. I LOVE programming. I think it's fun and challenging, etc. etc. But it's not the only creative outlet that has ever existed. Have you considered a pencil and a paper? Crayons? Markers? Paints and a canvas? A hammer, some wood and some nails? "Ah, but that requires som…

> It requires a computer (or access to one). It requires programs to run your code - free or otherwise.

I know what you're saying, but I'd like to point out that you don't need a computer to write programs. I started writing programs with pen and paper back in middle school (before my family owned a computer), and still often do that. Nowadays, most of them do end up being digitized and executed, though.

Alonzo Church, Alan Turing, Haskell Curry, Moses Schoenfinkel, etc., were writing programs before computers were even invented ;)

Re: Please Learn to Code

#74

Post by danso »

roc wrote: post #70
danso wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(ability to code) != (eyeballs reached) Not directly, maybe. But having some acknowledgment of basic data principles (particularly delimitation, meta-ness, maybe even regexes) can substantially increase your ability to write digitally. Markdown, for instance. And of course, being able to maintain or customize an existing platform, whether it's WordPress or Tumblr. It's sad to say, but delimitation is not a skill that…

I'd agree that there are computer skills that are generally useful, up there with reading, writing and math. But they're far less complex than code . And I can't say I've ever heard the "learn to code" people advocating them.

As a person in the media/reporting industry, I've almost committed to making it my life mission to teach people the usefulness of basic regexes.

I've taught a lot of "learn to code" sessions...My main goal is to not for them to remember the specific syntax, but that programming gives you the ability to repeat a task thousands of times (for loops) and differentiate between them (if statements)...how many (non-worker-drones) people would be content spending significant amounts of their dayjob time doing manual copying-and-pasting and click-series-of-links-to-download-reports if they were aware of these basic coding constructs?

Re: Please Learn to Code

#75

Post by Anechoic »

agentultra wrote: post #55
jenius wrote: post #41

Sacha, I am a fan of yours and usually like your material, but I just can't agree here. You took so much for granted in this post. Deploying a website that 10,000 people will see is not trivial, whether you personally did it or not. Here's my beef, specifically: 1. You already knew how to design. In fact you are a very talented and well known designer. If you didn't have design skills, chances are a huge huge amount…

3. You never dispute or even address the main point behind Atwood's article - that while programming is great to learn, the trend that 'everyone should learn to program' as a base skill along with reading, writing, and math is ridiculous. It's nowhere near as important as these other skills, and he makes a number of other valid points as well which I'm sure you don't disagree with. You argument was simply that progra…

As computers permeate more of our everyday lives it becomes necessary to understand them on some level.

You can say the same thing about any number of technologies that permeate our (western, and increasingly developed) lives - plumbing, electrical, cars, landscaping etc. While it's true that we should have some understanding of these technologies (checking the fluid levels in a car, snaking s small pipe, running A/V on your PC), expecting everyone to learn programing is like expecting everyone to learn pipefitting, carpentry, etc.

There is only so much time one has, folks should focus on their passions and let the experts take care of everything else.

Re: Please Learn to Code

#76

Post by tobias3 »

Discussions where one does not agree on the topic are always kind of pointless:

You can view "coding" as...

...an extension of mathmatics -- The ability to express an algorithm in a way that a computer understands it.

...an engineering discipline, where you build complex products by appliying good practice.

The first thing, can and should be tought at school. In fact where I live it is tought there. Needless to say it has the same reputation as math...

The second thing is something you have to study and become an expert in, because if you are not companies loose money or you might even kill people.

Re: Please Learn to Code

#77

Post by _ea1k »

edw519 wrote: post #47

Think about it: something I did reached 10,000 actual living people and had an impact (however small) on their life. That would never have been possible if I didn’t know how to code. (ability to code) != (eyeballs reached) I've written blog posts viewed by 100,000 people in one day. I've also written software used by 1 person to save millions of dollars. Both are rewarding, but I'd still rather build something. I thi…

Great points. I like this rewrite for the plumber at your local McDonald's:

"Think about it: something I did reached 10,000 actual living people and had an impact (however small) on their life. That would never have been possible if I didn’t know how to plumb."

This statement works equally well for many professions.

Re: Please Learn to Code

#78

Post by ralfd »

I think everybody should visit Reddit, for one simple reason: knowing how to make a meme is hugely empowering.

I can’t think of many other skills that enable you to create something from scratch and reach as many people as knowing how to set up a simple rage post.

Just last week, I was able to come up with an idea and then photographed my cat in 2 ways. That photo was then seen by about 10,000 people in a couple hours and I got 2000 karma points.

Think about it: something I did reached 10,000 actual living people and had an impact (however small) on their life. That would never have been possible if I didn’t know how to procrastinate on the Internet.

Re: Please Learn to Code

#79

Post by 27182818284 »

In the Information Age, literacy isn't defined as being just literate, it means being computer literate. All of these people have it wrong by saying people need to learn coded to like build a website or start a startup, they need to learn basics so that they aren't overwhelmed when they need to export something to CSV from Excel and shutdown.

Re: Please Learn to Code

#80

Post by venkyk »

nicholassmith wrote: post #8
T-zex wrote: post #3

Please do not compare coding to cooking.

Please justify why you think it's a bad comparison? I think it's apt. Cooking shares many qualities with coding, you're under time deadlines to produce something for a end consumer (for the most part). There's lots of competing methods and you have to select which ones work best for the product you want to produce. Most importantly you can cook something amazing that everyone loves, or a charred lump that no one will…

Few reasons: - Scalability issues - Confidence level in effort estimation - Resource planning (team may not be co-located)
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