Yeah "breaking up a complex function into simpler functions" is a great example of something that isn't taught well today, yet is simpler and more critical than

Yeah "breaking up a complex function into simpler functions" is a great example of something that isn't taught well today, yet is simpler and more critical than what we try to teach people in intro courses. I think of it in analogy to math. OOP is like topology - it's definitely useful in some cases, it's not too hard for an experienced mathematician to get the basics, and yet in a lot of situations it's irrelevant and it doesn't really belong in the first class you take. Being able to solve fizzbuzz is like doing arithmetic. If you can't solve fizzbuzz then you aren't going to be able to really get any advanced concepts. It's like you can't be a good mathematician if you can't figure out whether 351 is an odd number - you need to learn the basics first, even if "real math isn't about arithmetic". Sadly, you can tell if you do a lot of phone screens that many people who graduate with CS degrees still can't code fizzbuzz. Our CS education is busted right at the beginning. It needs to get the basics right, like, can you write loops, can you write functions. Today it is failing at that.