4 ms·
Give anyone (not just inmates) a computer and they are much more likely to become good Candy Crush players, Facebook users, and Buzzfeed readers than good progr
by Hydraulix989 10y ago
Give anyone (not just inmates) a computer and they are much more likely to become good Candy Crush players, Facebook users, and Buzzfeed readers than good programmers.
- ccvannorman 10y agoGive a man a computer, feed his mind for a day. teach a man to computer ...
- koolba 10y agoMore like give a man a computer and he'll start looking at porn.
- state_less 10y agoWhat if s/he had to write a perl script to download it though?
- koolba 10y agoWell funny story because that's how I learned perl ...
- state_less 10y agoThe old man likes to jerk us around sometimes ;) Be good koolba, hope you're happy as Larry.
- henrik_w 10y ago"Give someone a program, you frustrate them for a day; teach them how to program, you frustrate them for a lifetime." - David Leinweber
- catnaroek 10y agoIt's a good kind of frustration, though. It reminds me of Terence Parr's motto: > “Why program by hand in five days what you can spend five years of your life automating?” Link: http://parrt.cs.usfca.edu/ http://parrt.cs.usfca.edu/
- grogenaut 10y agoWhat if they have an computer with no games and no internet. As to your response... Should inmates be deprived of all distractions, especially trivial ones? How often do you BuzzFeed or candy crush or Facebook?
- Hydraulix989 10y ago> How often do you BuzzFeed or candy crush or Facebook? I'm definitely an outlier here, sample size one. :-)
- grogenaut 10y agoSo all day cc or never
- kzisme 10y agoI would assume they would being writing. That would likely be the first step most would take. After that their abilities in mathematics, or just a general interest in problem solving would take them pretty far (barring games and internet)
- GuiA 10y agoSure, just like give anyone access to a library and they are much more likely to read magazines and romance novels than 19th century French literature. That's missing the point though. The point is access and opportunity. Even if only 5% become programmers, it's a net win overall (and that's not even counting the people who might play Candy Crush but still use the computer to better themselves in other ways - learning, filing taxes, etc.).
- xor1 10y agoThere's nothing wrong with his response given how the original post was worded...
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- curiousgal 10y ago>they are much more likely to read magazines and romance novels than 19th century French literature. Unless you count Madame Bovary.
- Hydraulix989 10y agoSure I agree, but remember, parent was wondering "if inmates have access to computers, would they become good programmers?"
- rhizome 10y agoA conversation based on competing generalizations is pretty thin gruel.
- stOneskull 10y agowithout internet or games maybe. could be a linux install with no desktop, and a book about python.
- lineindc 10y agoThey'll learn how to install Xorg and import a WebKit library so they can browse Facebook.
- ashark 10y ago... and a device that lets them play a handful of games like tetris, but only 1 minute/hour. They'll get to work re-implementing their favorites (without the time limit) on the computer before long.
- sn9 10y agoOr you could just give them a Commodore 64 or Unix box with some good CS books and no internet access. (Or a Raspberry Pi, to be more realistic.)