12 ms·

I think if you were able to somehow come up with a compelling way to get kids to play forensic accountant (perhaps a new J.K. Rowling series?), you would absolu

by raldi 12y ago

I think if you were able to somehow come up with a compelling way to get kids to play forensic accountant (perhaps a new J.K. Rowling series?), you would absolutely see in 20 years that the kids who did were significantly more likely to go on to become great forensic accountants. Same with aerospace engineering. The special thing that distinguishes programming from those skills is that programming skills do have many analogs in the world of childhood playthings and can thus give certain children a preparatory advantage over others when they all reach college together. Actually, aerospace engineering might have a bit of that. Have there been studies to see if children with the opportunity and encouragement to design, build, and fly their own model aircraft might perhaps be more likely to grow up to be successful aerospace engineers than children who aren't exposed to such things?

tptacek 12y ago
Your intuition that the world's best forensic accounting game would produce a generation of the world's best forensics accountants might be useful, but it is not evidence. And the requirement here is for extraordinary evidence.
- raldi 12y ago
  What do you see as my corresponding extraordinary claim?
  - tptacek 12y ago
    Once again: the idea that computer science is unique among virtually all the professions in that performance at the median level of competence requires, like a concert violinist, exposure at the earliest possible age. This despite the fact that most of what programmers do is simply plumbing and diagnostics.
    - raldi 12y ago
      > performance at the median level of competence requires [...] exposure at the earliest possible age. I never claimed that, though. I think my actual claims were pretty mundane: 1. Children who play with computers have an advantage when, later in life, they're learning programming. 2. Young girls, in many places, are not encouraged to play with computers the way that young boys are.

by raldi 12y ago

tptacek 12y ago

Your intuition that the world's best forensic accounting game would produce a generation of the world's best forensics accountants might be useful, but it is not evidence. And the requirement here is for extraordinary evidence.

raldi 12y ago
What do you see as my corresponding extraordinary claim?
- tptacek 12y ago
  Once again: the idea that computer science is unique among virtually all the professions in that performance at the median level of competence requires, like a concert violinist, exposure at the earliest possible age. This despite the fact that most of what programmers do is simply plumbing and diagnostics.
  - raldi 12y ago
    > performance at the median level of competence requires [...] exposure at the earliest possible age. I never claimed that, though. I think my actual claims were pretty mundane: 1. Children who play with computers have an advantage when, later in life, they're learning programming. 2. Young girls, in many places, are not encouraged to play with computers the way that young boys are.