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This paper doesn't necessarily answer why people can't program, it just points out some pretty interesting discoveries. http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/rege
by mbeswetherick 15y ago
This paper doesn't necessarily answer why people can't program, it just points out some pretty interesting discoveries.
http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/reges/mystery/mystery.pdf http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/reges/mystery/mystery.pdf
It's a paper that focuses on some strange patterns that came out of a statistical analysis of the 1988 Computer Science AP test. It turns out that there are a few questions that end up being a great indicator towards someone's natural programming ability.
Definitely worth the read.
- kabuks 15y agoGreat article. Thanks. This in particular blew my mind: "“Educators of computer science have repeatedly observed that only about 2 out of every 100 students enrolling in introductory programming classes really resonate with the subject and seem to be natural-born computer scientists…I conclude that roughly 2% of all people ‘think algorithmically,’ in the sense that they can reason rapidly about algorithmic processes."
- justincormack 15y agoBut that is a quote from Knuth based on an older unpublished study, and seems to be a conjecture with weak evidence. Not sure it is actually mind blowing.