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Please Don't Become Anything, Especially Not A Programmer

learncodethehardway.org

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Re: Please Don't Become Anything, Especially Not A Programmer

#11

Post by neokya »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #9
bryze wrote: post #4

I really don't know why people worry so much about this. I don't think dissuading people from entering any field is surprising. Generally, experts in a field want passionate, talented people, because that's how the field will likely advance, which is what any good expert hopes for. If we scare off the dispassionate before they have a chance to burden the field, great. This is exactly the purpose of "weeder" courses i…

I feel that programming is complex enough that it's not necessary to "scare off" the dispassionate by pleading with them to stay out of our special sandbox, and not play with our toys.

Exactly. And Jeff shouldn't worry about it. Programming is hard job, and only passionate will excel in the long run. Why the hell should we scare people by posting page long article?

Re: Please Don't Become Anything, Especially Not A Programmer

#13

Post by Odrix »

zedshaw wrote: post #5
neokya wrote: post #3

I learned to code from your book Zed. I was disappointed by Jeff's article (Who is usually a nice man). You wrote this post at a right time with right points. My appreciation is triple-folded. Take a bow, Zed.

Thanks, it's actually something I've been meaning to write about for a while, so Jeff just gave me a good reason. :-)

Thanks Zed! I think that was pretty insightful. You brought a whole new perspective to the "please don't learn to code" issue. Jeff may not even be aware of the reasons behind his resentment, but now he wouldn't need a shrink to find out would he? Thanks!

Re: Please Don't Become Anything, Especially Not A Programmer

#15

Post by vibrunazo »

bignoggins wrote: post #7

out of all the posts on HN right now about this, this one is by far the most insightful.

Of all the posts pointing what Jeff's flaw in logic was. The one post attacking his person instead, saying he's just a mindless bully that should be ignored. Is the most insightful?

Re: Please Don't Become Anything, Especially Not A Programmer

#16

Post by WiseWeasel »

adir1 wrote: post #12

Actually, my feeling is that you misunderstood Jeff. He makes a great point - we can't all be programmers, world needs people with all kinds of skills.

Just because we can't all be programmers doesn't mean we shouldn't all learn to code to any extent.

Re: Please Don't Become Anything, Especially Not A Programmer

#18

Post by alecbenzer »

The part at the end was just fantastic, and really sound advice for pretty much anyone.

But, I think people are sort of misunderstanding Jeff's post. I didn't get the impression that he was trying to dissuade kids from learning how to code in some kind of effort to keep his uniqueness as a programmer. I think the point was just that this whole _everybody_ should learn how to code thing is a little odd.

If you want to code because you think it's cool and you want to become a good coder, then great, learn to code. But I think Jeff's point is that we shouldn't make coding out to be this essential skill that absolutely everybody should learn. If you weren't otherwise inclined to learn to code, don't do it just because someone told you you should.

Not that I completely agree with that sentiment either, I guess. One of the top comments by Fuzz [1] on that github gist is a pretty good tl;dr I think:

"Saying people should not learn how to code is like saying people should not learn how to speak a second language."

I'm sure learning a second language is fun, but I get annoyed when people try and make it seem like it's absolutely vital to do so.

[1] https://github.com/fuzz

Re: Please Don't Become Anything, Especially Not A Programmer

#19

Post by zedshaw »

vibrunazo wrote: post #15
bignoggins wrote: post #7

out of all the posts on HN right now about this, this one is by far the most insightful.

Of all the posts pointing what Jeff's flaw in logic was. The one post attacking his person instead, saying he's just a mindless bully that should be ignored. Is the most insightful?

Yes, because that's how life goes. I'm not going to attack the logic of an article that is illogical, I'm going to talk about the hypocrisy of the person writing it. The human stuff matters much more than the fantasy world of "logic".

Re: Please Don't Become Anything, Especially Not A Programmer

#20

Post by tolmasky »

adir1 wrote: post #12

Actually, my feeling is that you misunderstood Jeff. He makes a great point - we can't all be programmers, world needs people with all kinds of skills.

"We can't all learn how to read, the world needs people with all kinds of skills."

It is perfectly possible to both learn programming and also have other skills. Who knows, maybe you'll be able to do something crazy like apply lessons from one field to another.

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