zedshaw

22 ms·

181.
by zedshaw 14y ago
Warning folks: Since I've been working on my books I haven't had time to hack on this lately. I will be picking it back up when I have a break from the books to code up a few ideas I have.
182.
by zedshaw 14y ago
I did read it, and he's wrong. That's why I wrote mine.
183.
by zedshaw 14y ago
I would rather write the books that disprove it than waste my time debating it pointlessly. Thus the reason why I'm now going to go work on my C book.
184.
by zedshaw 14y ago
Well you can disagree, but nearly every other subject disagrees with you. They always have two tracks for their subject, one for people who know next to nothing, and one for people who are advanced and might become professionals. In some
185.
by zedshaw 14y ago
Actually, a strawman argument is quoting things out of context to make your point.
186.
by zedshaw 14y ago
I believe it is a vital skill, but that it's not being taught well enough so that's why people don't think it is. The same could be said about nearly everything we teach in K-12 at some point in the subject's history. Also, it's not an att
187.
by zedshaw 14y ago
I think you're applying boolean logic where there is none. I wouldn't say that people should always totally be logical. That's stupid because logic ignores context which is very relevant in the real world. I would say that one of the ski
188.
by zedshaw 14y ago
The title says "Please don't learn to code". The rest of the post is just more of that in different words. Wow, alright I'm just going to stop replying to people who can't even read the title, but still claim it's not saying what it says.
189.
by zedshaw 14y ago
The title says "Please don't learn to code". Holy crap, how can so many smart people be so incredibly bad at reading comprehension.
190.
by zedshaw 14y ago
Craft requires skill and the two are deeply intertwined. In opinion, if you think that programming is some mystical "craft" that can't be taught, then you simply just don't know enough about it.
191.
by zedshaw 14y ago
But, I'm passionate about my books. There's nothing wrong with being proud of the things you do. Thinking that you have to never tout yourself is just a form of self-loathing really.
192.
by zedshaw 14y ago
You should, then give it to me so I can sort out the comments that don't add to the discussion, but keep the replies telling people they aren't adding to the discussion.
193.
by zedshaw 14y ago
You confuse self-interest with hypocrisy. I am definitely self-interested and openly admit it, but I try not to be a hypocrite. For example, I think people should spend their lives learning new things. After I write a few more comments on
194.
by zedshaw 14y ago
Maybe if I learned to code when I was younger I'd be better at logic arguments. But, sadly, I'm a human and not a computer so I tend to write like a human.
195.
by zedshaw 14y ago
It's not just programming. I run into this with guitarists too. I mostly play for my own enjoyment, but I constantly run into guitarists who get off on treating beginners like crap. Even in music schools they do this, and for some weird
196.
by zedshaw 14y ago
I'm not refuting his statement that programming is or is not a life skill. My opinion on the matter is demonstrated in my work. I'm refuting his statement that other people should not become programmers, and that only a few chosen few shou
197.
by zedshaw 14y ago
I'm sure he'll write a follow-up clarifying what he said so that he's not guilty of saying anything.
198.
by zedshaw 14y ago
Damn straight, because I actually care about this stuff. I mean, for all the talk on here about "passion" y'all sure do hate it when people actually are passionate.
199.
by zedshaw 14y ago
Yes, because that's how life goes. I'm not going to attack the logic of an article that is illogical, I'm going to talk about the hypocrisy of the person writing it. The human stuff matters much more than the fantasy world of "logic".
200.
by zedshaw 14y ago
Well, these "weeder" courses actually make for intellectually lazy education. Rather than study how best to teach a subject so everyone has a chance regardless of initial ability, you design curriculum that only works for naturals. But, ul
201.
by zedshaw 14y ago
Thanks, it's actually something I've been meaning to write about for a while, so Jeff just gave me a good reason. :-)
202.
by zedshaw 14y ago
First off, and I'm not going to just pick on DB since most of these high-price training operations do the same thing, but this makes it seem like they went down to market street and picked 20 homeless guys then got them jobs at 80k/year in
203.
by zedshaw 14y ago
Well, three things about modern Jazz to understand: 1. Dissonance isn't bad or good, it's just more or less tension. 2. You can alter chords with substitutions, effectively creating a "chord abstraction theory". 3. If you can get abstract a
204.
by zedshaw 14y ago
> When you're implementing a linked list or a binary search tree for the first time... You're about 30 levels above an actual beginner. You have to think even lower capability, like this: > When you're trying to print "Hello World"
205.
by zedshaw 14y ago
Yeah that just sounds like marketroid startup dude speak. If you want to say that your business model and $3000 price tag are weeding out all but the most dedicated students, well then don't claim that's an effective teaching model. It's a
206.
by zedshaw 14y ago
I'm super confused. This is actually how they created their business. This is not how they expect to teach people, or even how they're currently doing it. Still interesting from a business perspective, but the title is way the hell off f
207.
by zedshaw 14y ago
Part of the problem is you're trying to understand a classification that's fairly broad (learn to code) in terms of your narrow definition vs. their narrow definition. It's too broad of a term, so it's better to just say "learn to code" me
208.
by zedshaw 14y ago
There's a bubble in teaching programming right now. Anyone with any kind of content is trying to cash in.
209.
by zedshaw 14y ago
They don't help with beginning programming topics because the primary thing beginners have to learn is reading and writing code. The videos mostly help beginners who have been convinced through "learning modality" marketing to fear readi
210.
by zedshaw 14y ago
Here's the error handling I teach for C: http://c.learncodethehardway.org/book/learn-c-the-hard-waych... It's using the gotos, but I make macros that hide the actual word "goto" away so that idiots (who think goto is bad because of a rant

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