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This is actually a big deal. Obama's code wasn't very useful or complicated but that obviously wasn't the point. The point here was that a 53 year old african a

This is actually a big deal. Obama's code wasn't very useful or complicated but that obviously wasn't the point. The point here was that a 53 year old african american man sat down and learned to write a program, any program. It's much more unlikely than it sounds. Do you know what it would take to convince my mother to write a program that draws a square on a screen? We're talking moving heaven and earth here. If I suggest booking tickets on expedia instead of calling her travel agent she's like "What am I, some kind of nerd?" Obama is leading by example. He and his biggest supporters are people who never in their lives imagined that they would ever write a computer program or anything close to it. There's a cultural barrier that's hard for most of us to see, a clear demarcation between most people's daily lives and the idea of writing even the simplest program. Crossing that barrier is hard, real hard, and I am surprised and encouraged that Obama took the plunge. Code literacy is important, not so that the average person can become a 10X engineer but so that they can understand what's happening in the world around them on another level. It's the same reason that people should learn physics or chemistry or biology. Because these processes control our world and a basic understanding of them, even if we don't use it professionally, can help give people valuable context. Hopefully this kicks off more interest in learning the basics so that in ten years the sales guy won't think that coding a full featured CRM from scratch will take you a couple of hours over the weekend. We're moving toward a more automated world and the value of understanding it is increasing exponentially.

droopybuns 12y ago
I disagree. "moveForward(100);" A publicity stunt should not be confused with a tectonic shift in technology literacy or usability. Big deal- no. It's quaint, cute and frankly, a little pandering.
- cafard 12y ago
  I don't quite see the pandering, but yes it is a stunt. Should we expect him to join up with PETA because he pardons a turkey once a year?
  - droopybuns 12y ago
    Pandering is the act of expressing one's views in accordance with the likes of a group to which one is attempting to appeal. A "developer" who has been excited over "moveForward(100);" has been the subject of pandering. Your PETA comment is not consistent with the point I'm making. Obama did some cargo cult "programming." I'm not sure that it's worth saying Obama is the first president to have ever "programmed" when all he did was follow a recipe. Obama did not develop any deep insight into software development and how the difficulties of the discipline justify the high salaries of your average developer. There's no real meat here.
sdrothrock 12y ago
> Code literacy is important, not so that the average person can become a 10X engineer but so that they can understand what's happening in the world around them on another level. It's the same reason that people should learn physics or chemistry or biology I disagree. None of that requires code and I don't think people need to know code any more than they need to know how a circuit board works or the inner workings of their internal combustion engine or microwave. What people do need, however, are broadly-applicable critical thinking skills and a basic introduction to logic. Those skills can be applied to physics, chemistry, biology, ticket booking, car problems, oven problems, anything.
- blazespin 12y ago
  This is important for the American economy and for the inner city culture that Obama is always trying to reshape. Coders will rule the future global economy. Therefore code literacy IS important and as a role model to a culture that has been unjustly shackled, what he did is important. As for pandering, no, it was symbolic and the presidency is all about the power of symbolism.
  - sdrothrock 12y ago
    > This is important for the American economy and for the inner city culture that Obama is always trying to reshape. I 100% agree with this. This was a great way to set an example. > Coders will rule the future global economy. I completely disagree with this and haven't seen any evidence. You could say the same about engineers or doctors or any other skilled profession that deals things that affect people in a similarly pervasive fashion. None of them "rule the future global economy." > As for pandering, no, it was symbolic and the presidency is all about the power of symbolism. I'm not sure where this came from since I never talked about pandering.
    - xiphias 12y ago
      Just look at Bitcoin, Ethereum, Counterparty and all the related startups around the cryptocurrency economy..decentralized EBays, currencies, stock exchanges, derivatives will rule the world economy in 6-20 years (not even talking here about the AI & medical revolution).
infruset 12y ago
> 53 year old african american man How is his "race" (as you guys call it) relevant?
- platinum1 12y ago
  http://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/acs-24.pdf http://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/acs-24.pdf See pages 16-19
  - infruset 12y ago
    Ok, but it is not relevant in this context. This guy is president of the United States, speaking of unlikely events..
- ozh 12y ago
  Seriously, this. I couldn't read further after tripping up on that bit.
  - isitmeor 12y ago
    why ? are you an old afro american ? I thought they don't read.. hacker news. /s
- dawidw 12y ago
  > "race" (as you guys call it) Do you know better term to describe "it"?
  - infruset 12y ago
    In my language, the equivalent of "race" is a word no one would ever use because it implies (in my language, I'm not saying that's what it sounds like in English, I'll leave that to native speakers) there are different "subraces" in the human race. It seems to me that the use of this word facilitates the formation of ideas like "mixed-race couple" or "people of other races" which are not as easy to express in my language. It creates a (further) mental separation between groups of people by giving an official way of categorizing them which would be harder if there were no generic word for it. I'm not saying making the word disappear would make the problem of racism disappear, but I really think the frequent use of this word increases psychological walls between communities. Finally, there is no scientific basis for saying Obama is of the "African American" race because he is as "Caucasian" as he is the former, which shows that what it really conveys is more than harmless classification for statistical purposes.
ASneakyFox 12y ago
From the article I don't think he actually did that. It said he wrote one line of javascript. I don't think he even set anything up he just sat down at a computer and copied a line from one of the exercises.
Shivetya 12y ago
Coding is still too complex for the majority, frankly case sensitive period laden thirty character identifiers and the like still boggle my mind, who thought this was a good idea? The the prevalence of tricks and such, macros and what not, all which confuse many more than they help. If we want programming to go mainstream we really need to have a near total visual environment. Yeah it won't be efficient but in today's world most won't notice. The people who write the tools may be encumbered with the text laden language but why should programming be solely confined to a text world?
- alxndr 12y ago
  Have you looked at Scratch, from MIT?

droopybuns 12y ago

I disagree. "moveForward(100);" A publicity stunt should not be confused with a tectonic shift in technology literacy or usability. Big deal- no. It's quaint, cute and frankly, a little pandering.

cafard 12y ago
I don't quite see the pandering, but yes it is a stunt. Should we expect him to join up with PETA because he pardons a turkey once a year?
- droopybuns 12y ago
  Pandering is the act of expressing one's views in accordance with the likes of a group to which one is attempting to appeal. A "developer" who has been excited over "moveForward(100);" has been the subject of pandering. Your PETA comment is not consistent with the point I'm making. Obama did some cargo cult "programming." I'm not sure that it's worth saying Obama is the first president to have ever "programmed" when all he did was follow a recipe. Obama did not develop any deep insight into software development and how the difficulties of the discipline justify the high salaries of your average developer. There's no real meat here.

sdrothrock 12y ago

> Code literacy is important, not so that the average person can become a 10X engineer but so that they can understand what's happening in the world around them on another level. It's the same reason that people should learn physics or chemistry or biology I disagree. None of that requires code and I don't think people need to know code any more than they need to know how a circuit board works or the inner workings of their internal combustion engine or microwave. What people do need, however, are broadly-applicable critical thinking skills and a basic introduction to logic. Those skills can be applied to physics, chemistry, biology, ticket booking, car problems, oven problems, anything.

blazespin 12y ago
This is important for the American economy and for the inner city culture that Obama is always trying to reshape. Coders will rule the future global economy. Therefore code literacy IS important and as a role model to a culture that has been unjustly shackled, what he did is important. As for pandering, no, it was symbolic and the presidency is all about the power of symbolism.
- sdrothrock 12y ago
  > This is important for the American economy and for the inner city culture that Obama is always trying to reshape. I 100% agree with this. This was a great way to set an example. > Coders will rule the future global economy. I completely disagree with this and haven't seen any evidence. You could say the same about engineers or doctors or any other skilled profession that deals things that affect people in a similarly pervasive fashion. None of them "rule the future global economy." > As for pandering, no, it was symbolic and the presidency is all about the power of symbolism. I'm not sure where this came from since I never talked about pandering.
  - xiphias 12y ago
    Just look at Bitcoin, Ethereum, Counterparty and all the related startups around the cryptocurrency economy..decentralized EBays, currencies, stock exchanges, derivatives will rule the world economy in 6-20 years (not even talking here about the AI & medical revolution).

infruset 12y ago

> 53 year old african american man How is his "race" (as you guys call it) relevant?

platinum1 12y ago
http://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/acs-24.pdf http://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/acs-24.pdf See pages 16-19
- infruset 12y ago
  Ok, but it is not relevant in this context. This guy is president of the United States, speaking of unlikely events..
ozh 12y ago
Seriously, this. I couldn't read further after tripping up on that bit.
- isitmeor 12y ago
  why ? are you an old afro american ? I thought they don't read.. hacker news. /s
dawidw 12y ago
> "race" (as you guys call it) Do you know better term to describe "it"?
- infruset 12y ago
  In my language, the equivalent of "race" is a word no one would ever use because it implies (in my language, I'm not saying that's what it sounds like in English, I'll leave that to native speakers) there are different "subraces" in the human race. It seems to me that the use of this word facilitates the formation of ideas like "mixed-race couple" or "people of other races" which are not as easy to express in my language. It creates a (further) mental separation between groups of people by giving an official way of categorizing them which would be harder if there were no generic word for it. I'm not saying making the word disappear would make the problem of racism disappear, but I really think the frequent use of this word increases psychological walls between communities. Finally, there is no scientific basis for saying Obama is of the "African American" race because he is as "Caucasian" as he is the former, which shows that what it really conveys is more than harmless classification for statistical purposes.

ASneakyFox 12y ago

From the article I don't think he actually did that. It said he wrote one line of javascript. I don't think he even set anything up he just sat down at a computer and copied a line from one of the exercises.

Shivetya 12y ago

Coding is still too complex for the majority, frankly case sensitive period laden thirty character identifiers and the like still boggle my mind, who thought this was a good idea? The the prevalence of tricks and such, macros and what not, all which confuse many more than they help. If we want programming to go mainstream we really need to have a near total visual environment. Yeah it won't be efficient but in today's world most won't notice. The people who write the tools may be encumbered with the text laden language but why should programming be solely confined to a text world?

alxndr 12y ago
Have you looked at Scratch, from MIT?