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The barriers to entry of learning to code are falling dramatically though. When I was a kid having a computer that cost several thousand dollars was table stake
by Alex3917 8y ago
The barriers to entry of learning to code are falling dramatically though. When I was a kid having a computer that cost several thousand dollars was table stakes, and even then in practice most of the kids who got beyond basics had parents who were also engineers.
These days a good enough computer costs less than $500, and in the last five years the free resources on the web have gotten good enough that anyone can teach themselves without needing any expensive classes. At most you might need another couple hundred dollars worth of books. At this point English literacy is probably a bigger barrier to entry than the monetary cost.
- cableshaft 8y agoAnd you can get a refurbished Chromebook for as little as $110, walk to your nearest free Wi-Fi source (Starbucks, McDonalds, local library, whatever), and go to a site like REPL.it or Codecademy and start learning how to program. Or get a used TI-85 for ~$30 and learn that way, which is how I learned the basics of programming, 25 years ago. Back then those cost about $250, adjusted for inflation. A Chromebook is much more versatile than that.
- pofilat 8y agoYou can't walk into McDonald's and buy an introduction to Silicon Valley investors, and a depth chart of Harvard CS grads employees. Facebook was one of a dozen competing social networks, and they won largely because of Zuck's connections to capital and talent.