Biden announces, “Anyone that can throw coal in a furnace can program ” • Hacker News Board

Re: Biden announces, “Anyone that can throw coal in a furnace can program ”

#11

Post by anonu » Sat, Jan 04, 2020, 3:46 AM UTC

dane-pgp wrote: post #8

The relevant question for a politician shouldn't be "Can they program?" but rather "Can they program in a way that produces enough value to a company per day to justify a wage that the person can live off?". One limiting factor in that calculation might be not just the speed/skill of the programmer, but the number of companies with such positions available.

I'm waiting until someone creates Alexa for programs skill.

You have no clue how many times I've wanted to program through voice commands.

I think one day we'll get there.

Re: Biden announces, “Anyone that can throw coal in a furnace can program ”

#12

Post by Turing_Machine » Sat, Jan 04, 2020, 3:49 AM UTC

"Throwing coal into a furnace" hasn't been a job for about a hundred years now. On other than the smallest scale (say, a home coal furnace) that's been done with machinery for longer than Biden has been alive.

Does he really not know the difference between being a coal miner (which is a skilled trade, if dirty, strenuous, and dangerous) and being a furnace stoker (which historically required nothing but a strong back)?

Re: Biden announces, “Anyone that can throw coal in a furnace can program ”

#13

Post by hootbootscoot » Sat, Jan 04, 2020, 3:51 AM UTC

I rather agree. Call them a front-end engineer and let's get back to simplifying what is supposed to be an indexed document delivery platform.

The dewey decimal system is more complicated that the request/response cycle should be.

We invent busywork and it will take coal miners to break this farce, so bring on the coal miners!

Hindsight 2020

(just kidding, Sanders 2020)

Re: Biden announces, “Anyone that can throw coal in a furnace can program ”

#14

Post by hootbootscoot » Sat, Jan 04, 2020, 3:58 AM UTC

hootbootscoot wrote: post #13

I rather agree. Call them a front-end engineer and let's get back to simplifying what is supposed to be an indexed document delivery platform. The dewey decimal system is more complicated that the request/response cycle should be. We invent busywork and it will take coal miners to break this farce, so bring on the coal miners! Hindsight 2020 (just kidding, Sanders 2020)

[flagged]

Re: Biden announces, “Anyone that can throw coal in a furnace can program ”

#15

Post by hirundo » Sat, Jan 04, 2020, 3:59 AM UTC

This seems like the Dunning-Kruger Effect or maybe Pointy-Haired Boss Syndrome. Having never coded Biden miscalibrates the skill and effort required for competence. His words would have more weight if he took the time to learn to write FizzBuzz. After that he might want to qualify "Anyone".

Re: Biden announces, “Anyone that can throw coal in a furnace can program ”

#16

Post by salawat » Sat, Jan 04, 2020, 4:04 AM UTC

haecceity wrote: post #7

technologyvault wrote: post #2

Not sure what throwing coal in a furnace has to do with the mental exertion required to be a programmer, but maybe the point of being persistent makes sense.

Labor is interchangeable

Keep telling yourself that, and hire a mason to do some machining, or the machinist to do your hair, or the hair stylist to do your doctoring, or your doctor to do your roofing, or the roofer to do your stocking, or the stocker to do your books, or the bookkeeper to do your cooking, or the cook to do work on your car.

I assure you, human beings are not mere cogs. The sooner you divorce yourself from the notion, the better off you and any employees will be.

Re: Biden announces, “Anyone that can throw coal in a furnace can program ”

#17

Post by dazilcher » Sat, Jan 04, 2020, 4:09 AM UTC

Sure they can, but why bother? Perfecting snark take a lot of work...

The real question is can they learn to be a politician, or say a Burisma board member?

Re: Biden announces, “Anyone that can throw coal in a furnace can program ”

#18

Post by Turing_Machine » Sat, Jan 04, 2020, 4:22 AM UTC

kbos87 wrote: post #5

ftvy wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is very insulting to expect that the experience of working in a factory or mining environment will translate at all as skills necessary for programming.

It’s also very insulting to imply that all some group of people is likely doing all day is throwing heaps of coal into a furnace. Even most seemingly simple blue collar jobs are usually pretty detailed and complex in their own way.

> It’s also very insulting to imply that all some group of people is likely doing all day is throwing heaps of coal into a furnace.

Indeed. Not to mention that no one has been doing that for a very long time. That's not what coal miners, nor has it ever been what coal miners do.

A guy who shovels coal into a furnace was called a "stoker", and that unskilled labor job was automated out of existence about a hundred years ago.

A coal miner is a skilled laborer who (nowadays) uses advanced machinery and technology. Look into how "longwall mining" works. It's pretty cool.

Re: Biden announces, “Anyone that can throw coal in a furnace can program ”

#19

Post by Turing_Machine » Sat, Jan 04, 2020, 4:23 AM UTC

hirundo wrote: post #15

This seems like the Dunning-Kruger Effect or maybe Pointy-Haired Boss Syndrome. Having never coded Biden miscalibrates the skill and effort required for competence. His words would have more weight if he took the time to learn to write FizzBuzz. After that he might want to qualify "Anyone".

He doesn't know anything about coal mining, either.

Re: Biden announces, “Anyone that can throw coal in a furnace can program ”

#20

Post by hirundo » Sat, Jan 04, 2020, 4:37 AM UTC

Turing_Machine wrote: post #19

hirundo wrote: post #15

This seems like the Dunning-Kruger Effect or maybe Pointy-Haired Boss Syndrome. Having never coded Biden miscalibrates the skill and effort required for competence. His words would have more weight if he took the time to learn to write FizzBuzz. After that he might want to qualify "Anyone".

He doesn't know anything about coal mining, either.

He said "throw coal in a furnace", not mine coal. When I was a teenager I had a summer job keeping a coal furnace burning overnight. It's hard to underestimate the skill required for that. They probably could have trained pigeons to drop in coal chunks in return for bird seed. The best part of the job was the time it gave me to read programming books.