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When I was young, I thought that anybody could learn programming. I was horribly, horribly wrong.

Cthulhu_ 5y ago
I'm glad this realization exists. When I was in school, I quickly realized that most of my peers - the ones that came with me from an associate's degree course in IT, more sysadmin stuff - just couldn't keep up with software development, they didn't have the knack for it.
Graffur 5y ago
I thought this when I was younger too. Now I hate seeing the meme "code is the easy part". There are, of course, other hard parts too but to trivialize coding is silly.
- Andrew_nenakhov 5y ago
  For the most part, code is, indeed, easy. For you or for me. But some people just can't. I've stopped trying to understand, and just accept is as a fact.
  - aksss 5y ago
    For me, it was “money for nothing”, best job in the world because it was also my hobby. Not everyone is that way. Easy as breathing for some, completely incomprehensible alternate dimension of reality for others.
- NikolaeVarius 5y ago
  Code is easy, the math is hard.
  - knorker 5y ago
    For many mathematicians code is hard, math is easy.
lordnacho 5y ago
How do you distinguish between "can be taught" and "cares to be taught"? Plenty of people still live in a world where coding is low prestige.
- Andrew_nenakhov 5y ago
  People who have very low paying jobs and very unhappy about it, they know programmers earn well ("high prestige", in your words), and they try. But for some reason, they just fail and they can't to anything about it. I've seen it many times, when diligent dedicated people just can't.
  - lordnacho 5y ago
    Maybe they are not diligent or dedicated enough? Have you really met anyone who wanted to actually put effort into something, had no barriers (lack of money / family support / etc) and didn't manage to do it? For me the answer is I've only seen it where there is an absurdly narrow selection process: professional sports (all of them), admission to certain universities (Ivy League/Oxbridge), certain specific jobs (SEAL team, investment banks, etc). For everything where there's no gatekeeper, I'd only count out very few people from the start.
    - jbellis 5y ago
      I also thought anyone could learn to code at at least a basic level, until I worked for a year as a computer science instructor, including for the big intro class for freshmen. Some people's brains just aren't wired for it. (And this was a self-selected group in a positive sense; I would expect a random set of the population to do worse.)
      - lordnacho 5y ago
        Aren't students the ultimate "I'll do it if it's easy" group of people? They have to balance their learning with their new found freedom to socialize.

I'm glad this realization exists. When I was in school, I quickly realized that most of my peers - the ones that came with me from an associate's degree course in IT, more sysadmin stuff - just couldn't keep up with software development, they didn't have the knack for it.

Graffur 5y ago

I thought this when I was younger too. Now I hate seeing the meme "code is the easy part". There are, of course, other hard parts too but to trivialize coding is silly.

Andrew_nenakhov 5y ago
For the most part, code is, indeed, easy. For you or for me. But some people just can't. I've stopped trying to understand, and just accept is as a fact.
- aksss 5y ago
  For me, it was “money for nothing”, best job in the world because it was also my hobby. Not everyone is that way. Easy as breathing for some, completely incomprehensible alternate dimension of reality for others.
NikolaeVarius 5y ago
Code is easy, the math is hard.
- knorker 5y ago
  For many mathematicians code is hard, math is easy.

lordnacho 5y ago

How do you distinguish between "can be taught" and "cares to be taught"? Plenty of people still live in a world where coding is low prestige.

Andrew_nenakhov 5y ago
People who have very low paying jobs and very unhappy about it, they know programmers earn well ("high prestige", in your words), and they try. But for some reason, they just fail and they can't to anything about it. I've seen it many times, when diligent dedicated people just can't.
- lordnacho 5y ago
  Maybe they are not diligent or dedicated enough? Have you really met anyone who wanted to actually put effort into something, had no barriers (lack of money / family support / etc) and didn't manage to do it? For me the answer is I've only seen it where there is an absurdly narrow selection process: professional sports (all of them), admission to certain universities (Ivy League/Oxbridge), certain specific jobs (SEAL team, investment banks, etc). For everything where there's no gatekeeper, I'd only count out very few people from the start.
  - jbellis 5y ago
    I also thought anyone could learn to code at at least a basic level, until I worked for a year as a computer science instructor, including for the big intro class for freshmen. Some people's brains just aren't wired for it. (And this was a self-selected group in a positive sense; I would expect a random set of the population to do worse.)
    - lordnacho 5y ago
      Aren't students the ultimate "I'll do it if it's easy" group of people? They have to balance their learning with their new found freedom to socialize.