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"everybody can learn to code" Interesting, completely different from my teaching and CTO experience. Also interesting it looks very different from German unive

"everybody can learn to code" Interesting, completely different from my teaching and CTO experience. Also interesting it looks very different from German universities, where e.g. in Berlin the majority of students I've interviewed can't do FizzBuzz in an online interview. How would you assess "good programmer"? From a very practical point of view, mine would be something like can write a feature on his/her own, gets transactions correct, doesn't create performance bugs that show in live systems, good maintainable, readable, understandable architecture. We definetly could not get everybody on that level even with a lot of mentoring. We had a CTO meetup recently and mostly everyone shared the same experience. Coming back, would be interested in "How would you assess good programmer"?

Jemmeh 9y ago
The point is everyone has the potential to learn to code. You don't have to be born a genius or super special to do it. With enough effort and time anyone can pick it up. There's a lot of people who think "Oh, I am not smart enough to learn that" but anyone can provided they put in the time and effort. There's things that can make it take longer of course. If you're not familiar with computers at all, or have never even owned a computer in your life of course you will take longer to learn. If you are not an analytical person you will have to train your brain. If you're bad at even basic math you'll have to learn that too. You may have to do more learning than other people to learn to code but you can still do it.
- _Codemonkeyism 9y ago
  Specifically we were talking about "good engineers" and my experience is sadly different from you. Also from my experience >50% of developers are cargo cult developers. It's more like playing piano, some have the ear for music and some don't (I haven't although I love Mahler ;-) And putting a lot of effort into learning to play piano, many people are not becoming the equivalent of "good engineers". I'm holding workshops "Coding for managers" to C-level and VCs. I agree with "You don't have to be born a genius or super special to do it", many people are astonished when they write their first code. Incidently I will give a workshop here inhouse today to non-programmers.
  - Jemmeh 9y ago
    I mean what makes a good engineer that doesn't use cargo cult code? Actual deep understanding of concepts. A lot of people try to fly through the learning process without good study habits so they never really understand it. But proper study habits can be learned too. Obviously someone has to be a motivated learner though, you can't force someone to learn if they don't want to. I -do- see plenty of people without proper motivation do poorly. But anyone who wants to can.

Jemmeh 9y ago

The point is everyone has the potential to learn to code. You don't have to be born a genius or super special to do it. With enough effort and time anyone can pick it up. There's a lot of people who think "Oh, I am not smart enough to learn that" but anyone can provided they put in the time and effort. There's things that can make it take longer of course. If you're not familiar with computers at all, or have never even owned a computer in your life of course you will take longer to learn. If you are not an analytical person you will have to train your brain. If you're bad at even basic math you'll have to learn that too. You may have to do more learning than other people to learn to code but you can still do it.

_Codemonkeyism 9y ago
Specifically we were talking about "good engineers" and my experience is sadly different from you. Also from my experience >50% of developers are cargo cult developers. It's more like playing piano, some have the ear for music and some don't (I haven't although I love Mahler ;-) And putting a lot of effort into learning to play piano, many people are not becoming the equivalent of "good engineers". I'm holding workshops "Coding for managers" to C-level and VCs. I agree with "You don't have to be born a genius or super special to do it", many people are astonished when they write their first code. Incidently I will give a workshop here inhouse today to non-programmers.
- Jemmeh 9y ago
  I mean what makes a good engineer that doesn't use cargo cult code? Actual deep understanding of concepts. A lot of people try to fly through the learning process without good study habits so they never really understand it. But proper study habits can be learned too. Obviously someone has to be a motivated learner though, you can't force someone to learn if they don't want to. I -do- see plenty of people without proper motivation do poorly. But anyone who wants to can.