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How is it possible to be a developer when a kid is 6 years old?

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How is it possible to be a developer when a kid is 6 years old?

#1

Post by ck3g »

Nat Friedman in his "Hello, GitHub" letter saying "I've been a developer since I was six". (https://natfriedman.github.io/hello)

How is that possible?

I have a 7yo daughter, she is in the first grade of school. She barely can read and count. I understand she is not a wunderkind. I guess there are a lot of smarter kids around. But even with this knowledge, she is ahead of the majority in her class.

I'm trying to play with her in "Scratch Jr" app (https://www.scratchjr.org) and teach her a little bit algorithmic thinking. But she can do that on the very base level. She still struggles with the number of numbers she needs to put in the building blocks.

Can I call her a developer? In my understanding: No!

What is the bare minimum to be qualified as a developer? Especially when you are six.

Re: How is it possible to be a developer when a kid is 6 years old?

#2

Post by antonkm »

I think one of the most important questions here that's missing is this:

Should a 6 year old really be learning development/programming if they haven't shown interest?

I have kids at about 6yo and really, I can't see any positive effects it would have if I stick them in front of a computer. Maybe I'm just a hippie dev, but I believe focus should be put on happiness, play, creativity and logical thinking adapted to the children. Kids stuck in front of computers will lose many of social skills needed to get ahead in life.

I'm born in the 80's and I started becoming interested in computers at around age 12-13. I now run a successful company in software dev and my role is full stack dev.

It's my personal opinion, and you're her father, but maybe you should put off trying to teach her Scratch at this young age. Focus on everything she does beautifully instead.

No kid can be a developer at age six. Nat Friedman is spinning to get him positioned as a part of the GitHub audience.

Re: How is it possible to be a developer when a kid is 6 years old?

#3

Post by smt88 »

I think you should take it to mean that Nat has been programming since age 6.

Teaching your daughter is great. Who cares how she stacks up against Nat Friedman or anyone else? Achievement doesn't always lead to happiness, and it sounds like she has a lot of achievement ahead of her anyway.

Re: How is it possible to be a developer when a kid is 6 years old?

#4

Post by ck3g »

antonkm wrote: post #2

I think one of the most important questions here that's missing is this: Should a 6 year old really be learning development/programming if they haven't shown interest? I have kids at about 6yo and really, I can't see any positive effects it would have if I stick them in front of a computer. Maybe I'm just a hippie dev, but I believe focus should be put on happiness, play, creativity and logical thinking adapted to th…

To be clear. I am not forcing her to use that app to much. We do that as much as she likes. And I can see she has fun seeing "a cat moving along the street".

Re: How is it possible to be a developer when a kid is 6 years old?

#5

Post by bigtalljosh »

We're teaching kids this age Scratch in the UK now as part of the curriculum. I don't think you're ever too young to start learning about logic, decision making and critical thinking. I do think Nats statement is hyperbole. You can program something at that age for sure (I have taught kids to do exactly that) But I wouldn't personally class them as developers.

Re: How is it possible to be a developer when a kid is 6 years old?

#6

Post by antonkm »

ck3g wrote: post #4
antonkm wrote: post #2

I think one of the most important questions here that's missing is this: Should a 6 year old really be learning development/programming if they haven't shown interest? I have kids at about 6yo and really, I can't see any positive effects it would have if I stick them in front of a computer. Maybe I'm just a hippie dev, but I believe focus should be put on happiness, play, creativity and logical thinking adapted to th…

To be clear. I am not forcing her to use that app to much. We do that as much as she likes. And I can see she has fun seeing "a cat moving along the street".

Ok, hope you didn't interpret it as I was judgemental of parenting. If so, I apologize.

Re: How is it possible to be a developer when a kid is 6 years old?

#7

Post by ck3g »

antonkm wrote: post #6
ck3g wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be clear. I am not forcing her to use that app to much. We do that as much as she likes. And I can see she has fun seeing "a cat moving along the street".

Ok, hope you didn't interpret it as I was judgemental of parenting. If so, I apologize.

No, not at all.

Re: How is it possible to be a developer when a kid is 6 years old?

#8

Post by thisone »

when I was quite young I was playing around with Simons' Basic. I not sure exactly how old I was, but I was definitely under 10. No one was helping me or guiding me, we just happened to have the cartridge and the manual and a C64 and I was a curious and bored kid who loved playing computer games.

I'm not presumptuous enough to say I was a developer at that point, but I guess if you squint and stretch a bit it could be a bit true.

Re: How is it possible to be a developer when a kid is 6 years old?

#9

Post by achairapart »

I started playing with Commodore 64 Basic at 6 or 7. Nothing fancy, just some "10 INPUT A, 20 PRINT A".

I used my father as a beta tester, he was impressed.

Then I switched to GWBasic on an 8086. Spent endless hours randomly messing with other programs source code.

By the time I was 11 or 12 I wrote my first fully functional program. And it was compiled into an executable file with Turbo Basic!

By then, I saw myself as a fully qualified developer.

Ah, memories :) I

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