Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Don’t Believe Anyone Who Tells You Learning To Code Is Easy

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 186 posts

Re: Don’t Believe Anyone Who Tells You Learning To Code Is Easy

#2

Post by felixrieseberg »

There's merit in reminding people that a lot of development contains a decent amount of Googling, but I'm not sure that "knowing which code is best to copy-paste" is the main trait of coding.

What's certainly true is that learning how to code is dramatically easier than it ever has been; and is likely to get easier as time passes. Learning how to code is indeed pretty easy, knowing how to build a complex product goes beyond that, though.

Re: Don’t Believe Anyone Who Tells You Learning To Code Is Easy

#3

Post by _RPM »

" As a programmer, there is a limitless amount of stuff to learn"

I absolutely disagree with this. I learn new things at least once a week about computer science in general. No one knows everything.

"They don’t tell you that a lot of programming skill is about developing a knack for asking the right questions on Google"

So, she relies on S.O. for all her programming problems, what if other people don't? SO is _not_ my first choice anymore. Man pages are such high quality.

Re: Don’t Believe Anyone Who Tells You Learning To Code Is Easy

#4

Post by darkmighty »

felixrieseberg wrote: post #2

There's merit in reminding people that a lot of development contains a decent amount of Googling, but I'm not sure that "knowing which code is best to copy-paste" is the main trait of coding. What's certainly true is that learning how to code is dramatically easier than it ever has been; and is likely to get easier as time passes. Learning how to code is indeed pretty easy, knowing how to build a complex product goes…

It is remarkably easier, that far I can tell. The number of "building blocks" so to speak in a programming language are quite numerous for most tasks (i.e. not core algorithms) -- something I learned quickly which frustrated me when I started programming in HS -- unlike in math where dominating elementary logic/algebra allows you to solve incredibly complex problems just by thinking hard enough, in languages/libraries tools and problems are tightly coupled, and numerous.

So often the better way is just googling, seeing examples, and a lot of copy-pasting.

Re: Don’t Believe Anyone Who Tells You Learning To Code Is Easy

#7

Post by ef4 »

> They don’t tell you that a lot of programming skill is about developing a knack for asking the right questions on Google and knowing which code is best to copy-paste. And they don’t let you in on a big secret: that there is no mastery, there is no final level. The anxiety of feeling lost and stupid is not something you learn to conquer, but something you learn to live with.

Just because you haven't achieved mastery yet doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It takes a very long time.

Until you've worked with masters, you may doubt they exist. But they do.

Re: Don’t Believe Anyone Who Tells You Learning To Code Is Easy

#8

Post by jhspaybar »

_RPM wrote: post #3

" As a programmer, there is a limitless amount of stuff to learn" I absolutely disagree with this. I learn new things at least once a week about computer science in general. No one knows everything. "They don’t tell you that a lot of programming skill is about developing a knack for asking the right questions on Google" So, she relies on S.O. for all her programming problems, what if other people don't? SO is _not_ m…

I was recently going through the man pages on how to manipulate the route table and thought to myself, "man, these are kind of lacking compared to what I usually see." I get to the bottom and in the Bugs section is a single sentence, "This page is incomplete." Good times :)

Re: Don’t Believe Anyone Who Tells You Learning To Code Is Easy

#9

Post by Balgair »

I'll hijack here a bit (sorry).

A good friend of mine in in a PhD program at UCLA. She's into solid-state physics and modeling. They use IgorPRO a lot in this field (oddly, also audiology). However, she can't use it a lick. She tries, she really does, but she just can't.

Why? Dyslexia. She has dyslexia. All the variables on the screen just look the same. i++ and i--, or +i and 'hi', or for() and if(). Just the same stuff to her. Its something not usually discussed, as I think most programmers don't have it so bad. 'Up to 17% of the population'[0] may have some form of dyslexia. It's something that really does impede many many people from just reading, let alone coding and programming. Does anyone know of a work-around for this at all? Thank you.

[0]http://dyslexiahelp.umich.edu/answers/faq

Post reply on HN