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What a clickbait, provocative article with nothing beyond a single anecdote, not even a second one other than the generic "you've never written assembly so you'

What a clickbait, provocative article with nothing beyond a single anecdote, not even a second one other than the generic "you've never written assembly so you're not a programmer" comment. Seriously has anyone heard a programmer say this in the last 10 years? Elitism exists everywhere and I don't see how software development is any better or worse than the rest. We have an arrogant vocal minority just like everyone else, it just so happens they are the people for whom blogging and displaying their arrogance has a lower barrier to entry than for other groups. 》 Coding academies have opened new doors for people with a variety of backgrounds, many who couldn’t afford a more traditional four-year computer science degree, or may have been steered clear of a technical degree in college (or younger) due to societal pressures or family culture, just to name a couple. BAM. 'nuff said. Why bring elitism into this?

FatalBaboon 11y ago
Not only this, but in the conclusion you get this pearl: "learning on your own is neither efficient nor cost-effective when factoring in time spent." And now everybody learns the same way? I can tell you that for a self-taught person, learning by yourself is much faster and deeper than being taught by someone.
- npsimons 11y ago
  > "learning on your own is neither efficient nor cost-effective when factoring in time spent." Tell that to John Carmack.
LukeB_UK 11y ago
Almost every time a PHP or JavaScript project is brought up here, the fact that it's written in PHP or JavaScript is always used to negatively comment on the project and author. Just because someone doesn't like a language, they see fit to demean the author. Edit: Even better, someone has already done that in the comments here on HN for this article: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10637947 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10637947
- akiselev 11y ago
  You're commiting the same exact mistake the article is. This is the vocal minority who is, you know, vocal and unrepresentative of all software developers, the majority of whom have little to say about the religious battles on online forums and don't give a damn about programming except to feed their families. If you want an example of a real problem of elitism go look at the metastudies on narcissism, which talk about how the selection process for surgeons (brain surgeons especially) tends to select for egomaniacs and results in a very politically charged industry.
  - TeMPOraL 11y ago
    > at the metastudies on narcissism, which talk about how the selection process for surgeons (brain surgeons especially) tends to select for egomaniacs and results in a very politically charged industry Are there any surprising findings there, or is it just what you could reasonably expect after putting people through 10+ years of life-sucking training, deep in debt, to work on the most complicated thing humans ever had to deal with - but under time pressure and tremendous emotional load?
    - akiselev 11y ago
      Not really. Doctors are part of a very science/research heavy industry so most of the serious research is focused on them but the relatively few sources available on lawyers have the same conclusions about competitive, economic, and intellectual incentives selecting for a very narrow class of people. The really interesting part comes when you expand your outlook beyond the Western research world (which very few metastudies in psychology do, unfortunately) where these results aren't always so clear cut. It appears that a culture such as the one in India or Cuba, which heavily emphasizes education in family life, can have turn a lot of that arrogance into humility.
- venomsnake 11y ago
  It is extremely hard to maintain good and safe codebase in both languages. Which is important when you make code that other people use. Above couple of hundred lines of code you need either some form of type safety or very talented and disciplined programmers.
crdoconnor 11y ago
>BAM. 'nuff said. Why bring elitism into this? I guess because the author feels insecure about the accusations leveled against his company - that they toss out underqualified developers. He wants it to be made clear that his type of elitism (running a big important software company) trumps your kind of elitism (knowing all about pointers, assembly, big O notation and data structures). Something like that anyway :/

FatalBaboon 11y ago

Not only this, but in the conclusion you get this pearl: "learning on your own is neither efficient nor cost-effective when factoring in time spent." And now everybody learns the same way? I can tell you that for a self-taught person, learning by yourself is much faster and deeper than being taught by someone.

npsimons 11y ago
> "learning on your own is neither efficient nor cost-effective when factoring in time spent." Tell that to John Carmack.

LukeB_UK 11y ago

Almost every time a PHP or JavaScript project is brought up here, the fact that it's written in PHP or JavaScript is always used to negatively comment on the project and author. Just because someone doesn't like a language, they see fit to demean the author. Edit: Even better, someone has already done that in the comments here on HN for this article: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10637947 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10637947

akiselev 11y ago
You're commiting the same exact mistake the article is. This is the vocal minority who is, you know, vocal and unrepresentative of all software developers, the majority of whom have little to say about the religious battles on online forums and don't give a damn about programming except to feed their families. If you want an example of a real problem of elitism go look at the metastudies on narcissism, which talk about how the selection process for surgeons (brain surgeons especially) tends to select for egomaniacs and results in a very politically charged industry.
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  > at the metastudies on narcissism, which talk about how the selection process for surgeons (brain surgeons especially) tends to select for egomaniacs and results in a very politically charged industry Are there any surprising findings there, or is it just what you could reasonably expect after putting people through 10+ years of life-sucking training, deep in debt, to work on the most complicated thing humans ever had to deal with - but under time pressure and tremendous emotional load?
  - akiselev 11y ago
    Not really. Doctors are part of a very science/research heavy industry so most of the serious research is focused on them but the relatively few sources available on lawyers have the same conclusions about competitive, economic, and intellectual incentives selecting for a very narrow class of people. The really interesting part comes when you expand your outlook beyond the Western research world (which very few metastudies in psychology do, unfortunately) where these results aren't always so clear cut. It appears that a culture such as the one in India or Cuba, which heavily emphasizes education in family life, can have turn a lot of that arrogance into humility.
venomsnake 11y ago
It is extremely hard to maintain good and safe codebase in both languages. Which is important when you make code that other people use. Above couple of hundred lines of code you need either some form of type safety or very talented and disciplined programmers.

crdoconnor 11y ago

>BAM. 'nuff said. Why bring elitism into this? I guess because the author feels insecure about the accusations leveled against his company - that they toss out underqualified developers. He wants it to be made clear that his type of elitism (running a big important software company) trumps your kind of elitism (knowing all about pointers, assembly, big O notation and data structures). Something like that anyway :/