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Few things: 1. I think you have a good argument concerning how they may seem to be belittling the complexities of programming. Again, I'm interested in seeing
by aik 15y ago
Few things:
1. I think you have a good argument concerning how they may seem to be belittling the complexities of programming. Again, I'm interested in seeing where they will go from here... I believe they have a good (early) start, and I believe the worth of the site will be determined by how effectively it can teach anything beyond the very very beginner level.
2. The site just recently was made available -- it's clearly not 100% complete. HN has submissions of half-complete (or <=MVP) stuff all the time. This, and the fact that there is no business model present, the fact that the lessons stop at a very abrupt point, and the fact that the authors here are so eager for feedback, I believe renders the harshness of your harsher arguments unhelpful.
3. How you suggest one would teach someone programming from scratch I think would work for very few people (though if done well, I have no doubt it would work for some). I think a majority of people you would try that strategy on, how I am perceiving it anyway, would lead to burn out and people end up hating programming before much time was up. In fact, I believe that approach is one taken so often in school, and look where it has brought us... a majority of people hate math, hate [insert random science subject], and hate [insert nearly any academic field sometimes even including the one they majored in]. How is it that we fail so horribly as to often cause such strong aversions to certain subjects, or rather what we believe are the subjects. I don't believe anyone truly hates math (or any academic subject), they just have a horribly skewed idea of what it is.
- dusklight 15y agoPeople hate math because they are cowards and people are cowards because we have math 101 in school but not courage 101 ... I have spent a lot of time teaching myself how to learn, so I agree that current institutionalized methods of education are very flawed. But it's like, life is hard. It's not going to get any easier just because you pretend it's not hard.
- aik 15y agoTeach a courage 101 course? I agree with this for the most part, but I don't agree that being a coward is a natural state unless taught otherwise. I believe it results from the mindsets we form based on what we perceive societal values to be. Parents/peers/culture seems to value good grades, or simply looking good at whatever you're doing, and being accepted by following the norm -- superficial, damaging, and mostly pointless things -- and as a result, those things become priority for people over learning. If we stop pretending those things matter so much, and put more focus on the beauties of learning and curiosity and discovery and exploration, things would be different. When and how did you learn to become such an autodidact? Have you been one your entire life? Or when did you realize the system can't and shouldn't force learning upon you and you have to take it into your own hands? I made some of these realizations not all too many years ago, and am fascinated by how others have made the transition. Thanks, your views I find interesting...
- dusklight 15y agoI am not saying that being a coward is a natural state, rather I am saying that courage can be taught. If you want to work in software engineering you have to teach yourself pretty much everything -- identifying what you need to learn is a big component.