7 ms·

President of Finland writes code with 4-9 year old children

97 points by valtsu 11y ago

danielvf 11y ago
And here's the President of Singapore's Sudoku Solver in C++. (There is a link from his Facebook post to the actual source in Google docs.) https://m.facebook.com/leehsienloong/photos/a.344710778924968.83425.125845680811480/905828379479869/?type=3&source=48&locale2=en_US https://m.facebook.com/leehsienloong/photos/a.34471077892496...
- ryangittins 11y ago
  Dang, that's not even a terribly naive attempt. Do you think he really wrote that, or is it a PR thing? I don't know anything about the guy but props to him!
  - simonebrunozzi 11y ago
    He wrote it. 100% guaranteed.
- riffraff 11y ago
  I think he's the prime minister but not the president, the roles being separate in singapore.
  - danielvf 11y ago
    I stand corrected. Thanks!
- creamyhorror 11y ago
  The surprising thing is that a person as busy as him took time to code for fun. His ability to code itself is less of a surprise, given that he majored and excelled in math & computer science, and would have become a world-class mathematician if he hadn't entered politics. One of his teachers at Cambridge said: "No, he was truly outstanding: he was head and shoulders above the rest of the students. He was not only the first, but the gap. I think that he did computer science (after mathematics) mostly because his father didn’t want him to stay in pure mathematics. Loong was not only hardworking, conscientious and professional, but he was also very inventive. All the signs indicated that he would have been a world-class research mathematician." -- Béla Bollobás So he's quite the outlier among politicians. And the Prime Minister himself wrote that he would never be a mathematician: "A mathematician really has little say in what goes on in the world around him, in the way things are going on in the country. ...It does not mean I have to go into politics, but an important member of the civil service or the armed forces is in a position to do a great deal of good or harm." Previous thread about him and this sudoku solver: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9419035 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9419035
sfk 11y ago
What is the point? Children need to learn how to think, not how to code.
- rtp 11y ago
  You could reverse that and say that you can learn how to think by learning how to code.
- crdoconnor 11y ago
  It appears to be a PR stunt to promote putting programming on the core curriculum. I guess they're either trying to attract foreign IT investment or creating a wedge to create space for more privatization in the Finnish schooling system (they're bringing in private sector expertise to teach programming). It might be a reaction to the slow death of Nokia, too.
  - juhq 11y ago
    It's part of country wide upcoming curriculum change, not a PR stunt, read more from http://koodi2016.fi/ http://koodi2016.fi/ (site in Finnish, use google translate) No privatization will happen in Finnish school systems. There's always been professional people giving seminars, talks and teaching, but usually in university/college levels.
  - dirtyaura 11y ago
    I think your cynicism is unwarranted. What I've understood, Reaktor's Code School for Children has been a very much grassroots effort and not a calculated PR stunt.
    - BBopUndRawkS 11y ago
      A code school sponsored by a private company is very much a calculated effort. Reaktor is very much focused on profit through staff augmentation and project implementations. This code school is to establish branding.
    - crdoconnor 11y ago
Juha 11y ago
The president was interviewed after the event asking him: "How much can you do with programming?" He answered: "I just learned basics...I can make a circle!". Everybode's gotta start somewhere :).
bitwize 11y ago
It's cool and all -- President Obama did a similar PR move a few months ago -- but is it going to help? It's not like the PC was invented yesterday. Desktop computers have been around for 40 years, and at first they HAD to be programmed in order to be useful. Despite widespread mainstream recognition that this was indeed a game changer, the mainstream complained that programming was too hard and waited for Steve Jobs to come up with a suitably simplistic mode of interaction before embracing personal computing. Let's face it: programming is a niche activity. A vital niche, but still a niche. Is the President next going to fix a leaky pipe in order to emphasize society's need for plumbing infrastructure and the plumbers it takes to maintain it?
- vlehto 11y ago
  The interesting question here is why you have that attitude? And why you are passionate enough to write it down as comment?
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

97 points by valtsu 11y ago

And here's the President of Singapore's Sudoku Solver in C++. (There is a link from his Facebook post to the actual source in Google docs.) https://m.facebook.com/leehsienloong/photos/a.344710778924968.83425.125845680811480/905828379479869/?type=3&source=48&locale2=en_US https://m.facebook.com/leehsienloong/photos/a.34471077892496...

ryangittins 11y ago
Dang, that's not even a terribly naive attempt. Do you think he really wrote that, or is it a PR thing? I don't know anything about the guy but props to him!
- simonebrunozzi 11y ago
  He wrote it. 100% guaranteed.
riffraff 11y ago
I think he's the prime minister but not the president, the roles being separate in singapore.
- danielvf 11y ago
  I stand corrected. Thanks!
creamyhorror 11y ago
The surprising thing is that a person as busy as him took time to code for fun. His ability to code itself is less of a surprise, given that he majored and excelled in math & computer science, and would have become a world-class mathematician if he hadn't entered politics. One of his teachers at Cambridge said: "No, he was truly outstanding: he was head and shoulders above the rest of the students. He was not only the first, but the gap. I think that he did computer science (after mathematics) mostly because his father didn’t want him to stay in pure mathematics. Loong was not only hardworking, conscientious and professional, but he was also very inventive. All the signs indicated that he would have been a world-class research mathematician." -- Béla Bollobás So he's quite the outlier among politicians. And the Prime Minister himself wrote that he would never be a mathematician: "A mathematician really has little say in what goes on in the world around him, in the way things are going on in the country. ...It does not mean I have to go into politics, but an important member of the civil service or the armed forces is in a position to do a great deal of good or harm." Previous thread about him and this sudoku solver: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9419035 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9419035

sfk 11y ago

What is the point? Children need to learn how to think, not how to code.

rtp 11y ago
You could reverse that and say that you can learn how to think by learning how to code.
crdoconnor 11y ago
It appears to be a PR stunt to promote putting programming on the core curriculum. I guess they're either trying to attract foreign IT investment or creating a wedge to create space for more privatization in the Finnish schooling system (they're bringing in private sector expertise to teach programming). It might be a reaction to the slow death of Nokia, too.
- juhq 11y ago
  It's part of country wide upcoming curriculum change, not a PR stunt, read more from http://koodi2016.fi/ http://koodi2016.fi/ (site in Finnish, use google translate) No privatization will happen in Finnish school systems. There's always been professional people giving seminars, talks and teaching, but usually in university/college levels.
- dirtyaura 11y ago
  I think your cynicism is unwarranted. What I've understood, Reaktor's Code School for Children has been a very much grassroots effort and not a calculated PR stunt.
  - BBopUndRawkS 11y ago
    A code school sponsored by a private company is very much a calculated effort. Reaktor is very much focused on profit through staff augmentation and project implementations. This code school is to establish branding.
  - crdoconnor 11y ago

Juha 11y ago

The president was interviewed after the event asking him: "How much can you do with programming?" He answered: "I just learned basics...I can make a circle!". Everybode's gotta start somewhere :).

bitwize 11y ago

It's cool and all -- President Obama did a similar PR move a few months ago -- but is it going to help? It's not like the PC was invented yesterday. Desktop computers have been around for 40 years, and at first they HAD to be programmed in order to be useful. Despite widespread mainstream recognition that this was indeed a game changer, the mainstream complained that programming was too hard and waited for Steve Jobs to come up with a suitably simplistic mode of interaction before embracing personal computing. Let's face it: programming is a niche activity. A vital niche, but still a niche. Is the President next going to fix a leaky pipe in order to emphasize society's need for plumbing infrastructure and the plumbers it takes to maintain it?

vlehto 11y ago
The interesting question here is why you have that attitude? And why you are passionate enough to write it down as comment?

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]