Three years into studying Chinese and noting her non-technical background, I think I disagree. I think it's a great metaphor. The strength of the comparison do

Three years into studying Chinese and noting her non-technical background, I think I disagree. I think it's a great metaphor. The strength of the comparison doesn't come from the need for persistence, which is truly critical to either undertaking, but instead the kind of mental reformatting that needs to go on before either mode of expression is going to make sense. I liked her bopomofo example because it highlights the fact that there is a level below programming can even begin --- it's the level that "your grandmother" can't even see --- and if you think you can just dive into an intro to Python (sorry Mark Pilgrim) and hope you'll be sadly, sadly mistaken. Both endeavors require a great deal of tedious study of minor detail. You need to unlearn a lot and relearn it more generally. You can't program if the idea that computers run instructions isn't implicit; you can't speak Mandarin if you don't speak and hear tones without thinking twice.