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I think you're missing the point. More and more of the job of programming will be handed over to machines. Meaning that the work will become easier and easier

I think you're missing the point. More and more of the job of programming will be handed over to machines. Meaning that the work will become easier and easier and the skills required will change as time passes. The other issue is the amount of time required to do anything useful with the skill. One you learn how to read you can read books quickly. If you learn how to code, it'll still take you 6 hours at least to produce anything that would be even moderately useful. If you try to use computers to optimize everything, you'll waste more time on the "optimization."

chongli 11y ago
If you learn how to code, it'll still take you 6 hours at least to produce anything that would be even moderately useful. What? No way. I crank out extremely useful shell scripts in less than 5 minutes all the time. You don't have to use an IDE, compiler and some heavyweight framework just to be a programmer. Cobbling together a quick shell or Python script can let you do TONS of tasks that would be extraordinarily tedious, if not impossible, for a non-programmer.
- vezzy-fnord 11y ago
  We have user manuals and documentation for this. One need not devote a public school curriculum to it.
  - cinquemb 11y ago
    Tell that to very prominent VC's in NYC that have been blowing this horn for years in contradiction to your sentiments…[0]. I think public schools (and schools in general as an institution) face the same problem universities are facing: the obsolescence on such a mechanism to effectively and efficiently disseminate knowledge as more and more resources are allocated for signaling of such rather than acquiring/pursuit of it. [0] http://avc.com/ http://avc.com/
    - vezzy-fnord 11y ago
      I don't follow. A shell is just a software interface and interpreter like any other. You learn it by reading its manuals, documentation and proceeding to experiment. Whether you acquire the information directly or indirectly via tutorials, examples and other third-party sources is of little relevance to the point. It's an activity divorced from the scope of public education. I do agree schooling is starting to disintegrate.
      - cinquemb 11y ago
        I'm not disagreeing with your sentiments, I was just more or less stating that, there are monied interests in NYC like Fred Wilson, where if you go back through all his blog posts (or crawl the links in the sitemaps and enumerate all the instances of "kids/children" and "programming/code" in the same sentence, or within 1 or two words of each other you will see that it is greater than 0), who feel that it needs to be in the scope of public education.
        vezzy-fnord 11y ago
        Oh, that much is obvious. Code.org is probably the most egregious lobbying offender on that front.
        cinquemb 11y ago
        Whenever a good thing™ comes along, there seems to be the tendency for some in a society to want to jam it down others throats (this is far from being the only "We need ____ in schools, NOW!" initiative), and the more ways the better.

chongli 11y ago

If you learn how to code, it'll still take you 6 hours at least to produce anything that would be even moderately useful. What? No way. I crank out extremely useful shell scripts in less than 5 minutes all the time. You don't have to use an IDE, compiler and some heavyweight framework just to be a programmer. Cobbling together a quick shell or Python script can let you do TONS of tasks that would be extraordinarily tedious, if not impossible, for a non-programmer.

vezzy-fnord 11y ago
We have user manuals and documentation for this. One need not devote a public school curriculum to it.
- cinquemb 11y ago
  Tell that to very prominent VC's in NYC that have been blowing this horn for years in contradiction to your sentiments…[0]. I think public schools (and schools in general as an institution) face the same problem universities are facing: the obsolescence on such a mechanism to effectively and efficiently disseminate knowledge as more and more resources are allocated for signaling of such rather than acquiring/pursuit of it. [0] http://avc.com/ http://avc.com/
  - vezzy-fnord 11y ago
    I don't follow. A shell is just a software interface and interpreter like any other. You learn it by reading its manuals, documentation and proceeding to experiment. Whether you acquire the information directly or indirectly via tutorials, examples and other third-party sources is of little relevance to the point. It's an activity divorced from the scope of public education. I do agree schooling is starting to disintegrate.
    - cinquemb 11y ago
      I'm not disagreeing with your sentiments, I was just more or less stating that, there are monied interests in NYC like Fred Wilson, where if you go back through all his blog posts (or crawl the links in the sitemaps and enumerate all the instances of "kids/children" and "programming/code" in the same sentence, or within 1 or two words of each other you will see that it is greater than 0), who feel that it needs to be in the scope of public education.
      - vezzy-fnord 11y ago
        Oh, that much is obvious. Code.org is probably the most egregious lobbying offender on that front.
        cinquemb 11y ago
        Whenever a good thing™ comes along, there seems to be the tendency for some in a society to want to jam it down others throats (this is far from being the only "We need ____ in schools, NOW!" initiative), and the more ways the better.