Norvig himself commented on one of those type threads in support of a guy who had taught himself to program in 12 weeks: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32

Norvig himself commented on one of those type threads in support of a guy who had taught himself to program in 12 weeks: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3271866 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3271866