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To be fair, software engineering connects better to the interests of STEM-ish kids (video games, robotics, electronics) than spreadsheets ever could.

by gfaure 6y ago

dragonwriter 6y ago
Having been a STEMish kid that only got into spreadsheets later than programming because my families first computers all came with BASIC but it wasn't until the third that I also had Visicalc, I'm not sure that spreadsheets really have that much less appeal than programming, presented in the right context. Even moreso with modern spreadsheets, where the barrier between spreadsheets and accessible programming tools is low, so using programming with spreadsheets is doable.
detaro 6y ago
"video games, robotics, electronics" is a rather tech-sided perspective of "STEM". Spreadsheets are great for maths, planning projects, tracking experiments/collecting data, ... which I'd also all attribute to things "STEM-ish kids" might do.
JCharante 6y ago
Really? My earliest memories of Excel are from third grade and long before I started programming. Calculations for electronics and min-maxing video games are perfect applications of spreadsheets. Spreadsheets are a great visual way of programming up to a certain point.
TeMPOraL 6y ago
Depends on video game and the parts of spreadsheets. For an extreme example, Eve Online is a game that makes kids do feats in spreadsheets that set them up straight for careers in accounting and supply chain management. But less extreme: if your game exposes numbers, spreadsheets are useful to play with them. If I knew more about Excel when I was 13, I'd probably retype unit stats from StarCraft into it and do the maths that I ended up doing in my head. Spreadsheets have plotting functions, which are a fun thing to play with. Also tracking my own magazines & CDs is something I remember doing as a kid - entirely doable in Excel, though in my case, this was my first exposure to Access and RDBMSes in general. Also worth noting that a proper spreadsheet like Excel is in itself a functional reactive programming REPL. FRP is what you do when you play with formulas.

To be fair, software engineering connects better to the interests of STEM-ish kids (video games, robotics, electronics) than spreadsheets ever could.

by gfaure 6y ago

To be fair, software engineering connects better to the interests of STEM-ish kids (video games, robotics, electronics) than spreadsheets ever could.

dragonwriter 6y ago

Having been a STEMish kid that only got into spreadsheets later than programming because my families first computers all came with BASIC but it wasn't until the third that I also had Visicalc, I'm not sure that spreadsheets really have that much less appeal than programming, presented in the right context. Even moreso with modern spreadsheets, where the barrier between spreadsheets and accessible programming tools is low, so using programming with spreadsheets is doable.

detaro 6y ago

"video games, robotics, electronics" is a rather tech-sided perspective of "STEM". Spreadsheets are great for maths, planning projects, tracking experiments/collecting data, ... which I'd also all attribute to things "STEM-ish kids" might do.

JCharante 6y ago

Really? My earliest memories of Excel are from third grade and long before I started programming. Calculations for electronics and min-maxing video games are perfect applications of spreadsheets. Spreadsheets are a great visual way of programming up to a certain point.

TeMPOraL 6y ago

Depends on video game and the parts of spreadsheets. For an extreme example, Eve Online is a game that makes kids do feats in spreadsheets that set them up straight for careers in accounting and supply chain management. But less extreme: if your game exposes numbers, spreadsheets are useful to play with them. If I knew more about Excel when I was 13, I'd probably retype unit stats from StarCraft into it and do the maths that I ended up doing in my head. Spreadsheets have plotting functions, which are a fun thing to play with. Also tracking my own magazines & CDs is something I remember doing as a kid - entirely doable in Excel, though in my case, this was my first exposure to Access and RDBMSes in general. Also worth noting that a proper spreadsheet like Excel is in itself a functional reactive programming REPL. FRP is what you do when you play with formulas.