I suggest reading the article before making a comment. Jimmy Wales tweeted, "This is super cool!" about a girl presenting her Raspberry Pi story, "I started to learn Python...".
This is even more cool. His encouragement will go a long way for her.
Jimmy Wales: This is super cool. "I started to learn python..."
21–30 of 36 posts
Re: Jimmy Wales: This is super cool. "I started to learn python..."
#22Jimmy Wales is a role model, you must have modesty and defined objectives to build that humongous platform and refuse to monetize, his quotations of "The Fountainhead" made me read it, awesome, the man really is a Howard Roark.
Jimmy Wales did not build Wikipedia. Thousands upon thousands of unpaid volunteers did. As for Howard Roark, who is supposed to epitomize Ayn Rand's "virtue of selfishness" ideal, I don't remember him being any kind of philanthropist. If anything, he (like Rand) has nothing but contempt for the masses. Wikipedia would be the antithesis of what Roark would want to build. The Encyclopedia Britannica would be more to hi…
Hmm, I don't know. Seems like much of Wikipedia is by smart people for smart people (like NPR). We all think of Wikipedia as the commons but it's far from it. Most people are on perezhilton.com all day.
Anyway, Ayn Rand was more against the falseness around giving and the betrayal of the recipient when he is given something he could never earn.
Re: Jimmy Wales: This is super cool. "I started to learn python..."
#23Jimmy Wales is a role model, you must have modesty and defined objectives to build that humongous platform and refuse to monetize, his quotations of "The Fountainhead" made me read it, awesome, the man really is a Howard Roark.
Jimmy Wales did not build Wikipedia. Thousands upon thousands of unpaid volunteers did. As for Howard Roark, who is supposed to epitomize Ayn Rand's "virtue of selfishness" ideal, I don't remember him being any kind of philanthropist. If anything, he (like Rand) has nothing but contempt for the masses. Wikipedia would be the antithesis of what Roark would want to build. The Encyclopedia Britannica would be more to hi…
I agree with this. The Fountainhead is one of my favorite books, but Wales is no Roark.
Re: Jimmy Wales: This is super cool. "I started to learn python..."
#24I don't share his enthusiasm about this. Doesn't everyone interested in computers/computing start programming things that are actually useful at roughly that age? Also, is an early start a guarantee that someone will choose a career in computing?
No, and no. A fair percentage of people who start developing software early end up being passed by people who started later. A seemingly large factor of this is kids learning bad habits on their own and not being able to correct them later, or having a much more difficult time correcting them. (I'm not saying that is the case here, just generally.)
I hear this a lot, but I've never seen actual evidence of it. Everyone who started early that I've seen in computer science classes has been better than people who started later.
Re: Jimmy Wales: This is super cool. "I started to learn python..."
#25I suggest reading the article before making a comment. Jimmy Wales tweeted, "This is super cool!" about a girl presenting her Raspberry Pi story, "I started to learn Python...".
Which makes me wonder, why is Wales' tweet linked here as the news, whilst it's the original article that should be linked and upvoted?
Re: Jimmy Wales: This is super cool. "I started to learn python..."
#26I don't share his enthusiasm about this. Doesn't everyone interested in computers/computing start programming things that are actually useful at roughly that age? Also, is an early start a guarantee that someone will choose a career in computing?
Nope! But it would be great if the general population had some proficiency in programming, even if they don't choose a career in computing. My partner is an aspiring film maker, but knows how to parse a CSV in python and do pattern matching, he was looking for funding and needed to pull all of the "x.com" domains out of a giant spreadsheet .. for him, simple, export as CSV and string match the email field. This simpl…
Do you have links to any good tutorials about programming (in any language) for this purpose?
Re: Jimmy Wales: This is super cool. "I started to learn python..."
#27Jimmy Wales is a role model, you must have modesty and defined objectives to build that humongous platform and refuse to monetize, his quotations of "The Fountainhead" made me read it, awesome, the man really is a Howard Roark.
Jimmy Wales did not build Wikipedia. Thousands upon thousands of unpaid volunteers did. As for Howard Roark, who is supposed to epitomize Ayn Rand's "virtue of selfishness" ideal, I don't remember him being any kind of philanthropist. If anything, he (like Rand) has nothing but contempt for the masses. Wikipedia would be the antithesis of what Roark would want to build. The Encyclopedia Britannica would be more to hi…
'unpaid volunteer' is a tautology in this context.
Re: Jimmy Wales: This is super cool. "I started to learn python..."
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Jimmy Wales did not build Wikipedia. Thousands upon thousands of unpaid volunteers did. As for Howard Roark, who is supposed to epitomize Ayn Rand's "virtue of selfishness" ideal, I don't remember him being any kind of philanthropist. If anything, he (like Rand) has nothing but contempt for the masses. Wikipedia would be the antithesis of what Roark would want to build. The Encyclopedia Britannica would be more to hi…
You could say the same about any business owner if you said thousands of paid employees built their business. Almost nobody builds something that lasts by themselves.
I don't think that's the same. A business needs a lot of coordination that is not (currently) possible with a crowdsourcing approach and people work for money. Founders of a crowdsourcing endeavor have its merits but at the end is the community working hard (many times harder than in a business) who owe the praise.
Re: Jimmy Wales: This is super cool. "I started to learn python..."
#29I suggest reading the article before making a comment. Jimmy Wales tweeted, "This is super cool!" about a girl presenting her Raspberry Pi story, "I started to learn Python...".
It should still be flagged for not linking to actual content. It is, effectively, blogspam.
Re: Jimmy Wales: This is super cool. "I started to learn python..."
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, and no. A fair percentage of people who start developing software early end up being passed by people who started later. A seemingly large factor of this is kids learning bad habits on their own and not being able to correct them later, or having a much more difficult time correcting them. (I'm not saying that is the case here, just generally.)
I hear this a lot, but I've never seen actual evidence of it. Everyone who started early that I've seen in computer science classes has been better than people who started later.
I concur. And it's not just mere ability that's at issue, here. Kids who enter computing at a young age are typically motivated more by genuine interest/passion than the later entrants who are more likely just picking a career.
Caveat: we're both dealing purely anecdotal evidence and a fair bit of conjecture. We could easily be wrong.