4 ms·

The article makes it sounds like it's a secret and she's disinterested. The selected quotes make her look like she's underestimating the challenge. But then you

by BoppreH 13y ago

The article makes it sounds like it's a secret and she's disinterested. The selected quotes make her look like she's underestimating the challenge. But then you listen to the linked excerpt of interview: - "I'm going to put my cards on the table, Jeremy, I can't code. I've committed this year to learning to code, hopefully." - "Take a year?" - "Well, you can do very little in a very short space of time." "Very little" in a "very short space of time" seems sensible. Her explanation of what code is: - "Code is the language you use to instruct computers" I find her position reasonable, and don't see what the fuss is all about. If played well, the "hey, I'm learning to code too!" card could be more valuable than "you should all learn what I already know".

Tloewald 13y ago
Good points, although I'm not sure what you meant by "disinterested". "not interested" perhaps?
- BoppreH 13y ago
  Thanks. English is not my first language, and the dictionary is telling me "disinterested" can mean "having or feeling no interest in something". Am I wrong? And by lack of interest, I mean for example the picture on the header. [ ] Can write code [ ] Can explain what it is [x] Is a Tory [x] Worked for Iain Duncan Smith's think tank I feel that image is trying to convince me she's there for purely political reasons and she's not at all interested in coding.
  - corin_ 13y ago
    Your word choice was fine, and your English sounds great. But I don't think the image was trying to make her seem disinterested, I think it was trying to make her seem unqualified. The person in that job should be interested AND qualified, not interested and politically connected.
    - Tloewald 13y ago
      disinterested means "not having a conflict of interest" not "having no interest", so I was simply trying to clarify the OP.
      - deleted 13y ago
        [deleted]
      - Joeboy 13y ago
        To clarify your clarification, people use the word "disinterested" to mean "uninterested" far more often than they use it in the "correct" sense, in the UK at least.
        corin_ 13y ago
        Disinterested can mean both, but uninterested can only mean the one thing, so it's possible to use uninterested incorrectly, but not disinterested
        Tloewald 13y ago
        I see "disinterested" used correctly quite often. This isn't like failing to use whom and using who (no-one cares). It's using whom when you should use who (because whom sounds clever).
  - pessimizer 13y ago
    http://www.grammar-monster.com/easily_confused/disinterested_uninterested.htm http://www.grammar-monster.com/easily_confused/disinterested... 'Disinterested' does mean "having or feeling no interest in something," but only in the original sense of 'interest,' meaning a stake or investment, and a preference for a certain outcome. In that, it really means 'objective.' 'Uninterested' means 'not interested.' Super-common mistake, made by native English speakers at least 100M times a day.
  - TomSawyer 13y ago
    Just accept the propaganda and quit being so bothersome.
  - fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
    [x] sending e-mails [x] receiving e-mails [x] deleting e-mails... IT Crowd s01e01
gklitt 13y ago
...and then she said you can learn to TEACH people to code in a day. I'm sure this person would never claim that someone who can't play the violin could teach someone to play violin. I don't understand why she thinks coding is any different. Also, I found myself getting annoyed at the "building a static website in an hour" == "coding" = "building Facebook" mentality. It takes more than an hour to learn how to actually write a simple program, and even more to learn to build a nontrivial web application. Then again, I got started with static web dev and ended up becoming a CS major, so maybe that's an optimistic and accessible way to frame it for beginners.
- anaphor 13y ago
  To be fair, actually to me it sounded like she meant it would take a day to teach people who already knew some programming to teach it. That's still kind of underestimating how hard it is to teach programming though.
  - handelaar 13y ago
    And yet she represents a government which won't let anybody teach in a state-funded school without a postgraduate qualification in teaching that takes at least a year to obtain.

by BoppreH 13y ago

Tloewald 13y ago

Good points, although I'm not sure what you meant by "disinterested". "not interested" perhaps?

BoppreH 13y ago
Thanks. English is not my first language, and the dictionary is telling me "disinterested" can mean "having or feeling no interest in something". Am I wrong? And by lack of interest, I mean for example the picture on the header. [ ] Can write code [ ] Can explain what it is [x] Is a Tory [x] Worked for Iain Duncan Smith's think tank I feel that image is trying to convince me she's there for purely political reasons and she's not at all interested in coding.
- corin_ 13y ago
  Your word choice was fine, and your English sounds great. But I don't think the image was trying to make her seem disinterested, I think it was trying to make her seem unqualified. The person in that job should be interested AND qualified, not interested and politically connected.
  - Tloewald 13y ago
    disinterested means "not having a conflict of interest" not "having no interest", so I was simply trying to clarify the OP.
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
    - Joeboy 13y ago
      To clarify your clarification, people use the word "disinterested" to mean "uninterested" far more often than they use it in the "correct" sense, in the UK at least.
      - corin_ 13y ago
        Disinterested can mean both, but uninterested can only mean the one thing, so it's possible to use uninterested incorrectly, but not disinterested
      - Tloewald 13y ago
        I see "disinterested" used correctly quite often. This isn't like failing to use whom and using who (no-one cares). It's using whom when you should use who (because whom sounds clever).
- pessimizer 13y ago
  http://www.grammar-monster.com/easily_confused/disinterested_uninterested.htm http://www.grammar-monster.com/easily_confused/disinterested... 'Disinterested' does mean "having or feeling no interest in something," but only in the original sense of 'interest,' meaning a stake or investment, and a preference for a certain outcome. In that, it really means 'objective.' 'Uninterested' means 'not interested.' Super-common mistake, made by native English speakers at least 100M times a day.
- TomSawyer 13y ago
  Just accept the propaganda and quit being so bothersome.
- fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
  [x] sending e-mails [x] receiving e-mails [x] deleting e-mails... IT Crowd s01e01

gklitt 13y ago

...and then she said you can learn to TEACH people to code in a day. I'm sure this person would never claim that someone who can't play the violin could teach someone to play violin. I don't understand why she thinks coding is any different. Also, I found myself getting annoyed at the "building a static website in an hour" == "coding" = "building Facebook" mentality. It takes more than an hour to learn how to actually write a simple program, and even more to learn to build a nontrivial web application. Then again, I got started with static web dev and ended up becoming a CS major, so maybe that's an optimistic and accessible way to frame it for beginners.

anaphor 13y ago
To be fair, actually to me it sounded like she meant it would take a day to teach people who already knew some programming to teach it. That's still kind of underestimating how hard it is to teach programming though.
- handelaar 13y ago
  And yet she represents a government which won't let anybody teach in a state-funded school without a postgraduate qualification in teaching that takes at least a year to obtain.