A bit of fluff about the superpower known as coding

Because the world needs more sub-par programmers.......

Because the world needs more sub-par programmers.......

I think the point here is more to start people younger so that they become much better at the end. Long term goals and all that.

Wtf did Bill Gates know about coding?

which will then be outsourced to india and china

Which will come back 2x as f***ed.

Wtf did Bill Gates know about coding?

This is a common misconception. Gates is and was an excellent programmer.

In his sophomore year, Gates devised an algorithm for pancake sorting as a solution to one of a series of unsolved problems presented in a combinatorics class by Harry Lewis, one of his professors. Gates's solution held the record as the fastest version for over thirty years; its successor is faster by only one percent. His solution was later formalized in a published paper in collaboration with Harvard computer scientist Christos Papadimitriou.

...

During Microsoft's early years, all employees had broad responsibility for the company's business. Gates oversaw the business details, but continued to write code as well. In the first five years, Gates personally reviewed every line of code the company shipped, and often rewrote parts of it as he saw fit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates

"Gates doesn't know anything about programming, lel" is usually based on the fact that he made his empire by buying and enhancing existing code rather than building his OS from scratch -- which just means that he was also an astute businessman.

If business folks all began to articulate their requirements correctly and in enough detail there might be reason to be worried, but I can't see that happening any time soon.

Even with that we have had major issues with Indian developers. Asked some of our Indian support to create a check box on a page so people can acknowledge that they considered the safety aspects. Came back and they created a category for purchasable items marked as fireworks.

For most of the stuff we have reviewed, they just grab something else that sounds vaguely familiar that they wrote for someone else and deliver that as the product.

Wtf did Bill Gates know about coding?

You're thinking of Jobs. Now that dude cannot code but an excellent business man. Gate is (was) both.

Yes totes jelly

Everyone that learns to code will go work at a place like the one described in that video

If I could go back and rechoose my degree I'd be doing IT/business. Oh well

What did you study Phooks?

If I could go back I'd replace my high GPA Science Degree with becoming a Sparky. Then with that behind me, upgrade my skills quickly to cash in on the Photovoltic fad as soon as I heard the government was going to subsidize it.

O well, instead I'll be well trained in a highly technical and extremely expensive skill-set that is just awesome to have in a time of fiscal issues. Could be worse, I could be a physicist.

they created a category for purchasable items marked as fireworks

I'd buy the fireworks.

I can't help but feel that "Learn a Trade" should be the mantra nowadays. Cos when the world goes to s***, being able to build/fix stuff is going to be far more valued than writing code... :/

Seppo prepper!

Strongly disagree with the video because you know, it's full of lies...
There are more kids programming today than there ever was, and we don't need more programmers on minimum wage or jumping month to month between contracts as things get outsourced to India.
Employers hate programmers, will make your life difficult, and tell you every day that there are a million d*******s out there just like you itching to replace you.

Become something people need, like a cabinet maker

Become something people need, like a cabinet maker

not sure if serious considering that most furniture consumed in the word is cheap flat pack s*** made by automation or sweatshop labour in asia.

I thought that this video had a point, but that it would be better to teach people better decision making skills than to teach them code. They're pointing out that coding helps you problem solve, but honestly half the coders i know can't solve their way out of a paper bag with tangible things. Show them a car which doesn't start and if they can't solve it with jumpercables or a battery they give up. Same with around the house things.. or even just solving a problem which requires them to figure out an efficient way to pickup people at different locations who need to be dropped at other locations.

Of course i'm being a bit dramatic, but i think there's potentially a bigger case with the same logic for forcing everyone to do some business decision classes.

Oddly, i might be biased, my fathers thesis was on making it mandatory that all engineers in DoD should undertake a minimum amount of business study so they can find solutions weighted with logic in the real world not just engineering logic. (He's worked on defence contracts now for over 30 years, 20 of which have been reviewing engineer submissions).

Definately knowing the basic fundamentals to code help give you skills to break problems down and then solve things though. I don't regret the time i wasted at griffith doing an IT degree i gave up instead changing to Business at UQ.

not sure if serious considering that most furniture consumed in the word is cheap flat pack s*** made by automation or sweatshop labour in asia.

not sure if serious - cabinet maker is the name of the trade title, doesn't mean they sit in a workshop building cabinets all day.

learning a trade.. if its such a bad idea how come these days tradies tend to make more than 100k/year across the board ? taking all that money that coders are making because most of gen y doesn't know to drive a drill or change a car battery or any of the simple s*** that was a given 10 years ago, generally.

like my air con installer guy said, why would he go to the mines to make 200k when he can make more working 4 days a week in perth and sleep in his own bed every night. not bad for a refrigeration 'mechanic'

Not everyone wants to run a business; many just want to code.

I can't see any harm in random people learning how to code for self development. Many DIYers learn all sorts of things because they enjoy the process and being able to do what they want at home themselves. They may never intend to be a painter, builder, landscape gardener but doesn't mean they can't learn how to do enough for their own projects.

Yes I take your point but you said in your original post "figure out what people want and write that". What I'm saying that you will most definitely not learn those skills by just being a code monkey which this vid is somehow pitching i.e. learn to problem solve, be determine blah blah.

They are character traits which are definitely not a cognitive skill. To learn to be "more determine" you'd need a different kind of lessons that they don't tech at normal school (too long to write about).

Of course it doesn't hurt to learn new things I agree but, linking the correlation between "learning to code" to being able to be more determine and thus somehow will be a success like those people in the vids is plain wrong - none of those people that are successful have just pure coding abilities that get them there nor did they learn those non-cognitive skills from programming.

Which leads me back to my original point that "if you are able to figure out what people want", you are clearly not a coder, you have a far better non-cognitive skills than your average code monkeys and thus you would be better off managing the said group of code monkeys.

My point really is that the campaigning to learn something for the sake of learning never succeeds. It's far too generic.

Here's someone that is good at coding but really not loving this idea:

http://threads2.scripting.com/2013/february/whyYouShouldLearnToCode


/anyway.

Edit: fix speeling mistakes and stuff and add link

Be warned, curio.

Learning to code is deep, dark sorcery that should only be done by the initiated under the guidance of an adept. Alone, once you complete your hobby project you find yourself unerringly seduced by glittering threads of logic and the potential of your imagined army of binary automatons. Your worldview will change as you see opportunities to conjure blind, soulless agents to do your bidding.

You gain brash confidence and inevitably pitch your new skills to your boring day job's organisation to grease some clunky, arcane business process. Excited at your fresh start, you will watch in absolute horror as burning complexity is poured into your straining system at a rate you cannot possibly keep up with, until finally it collapses like a beautiful but tragically, fundamentally flawed puzzle that can never be solved.

Two years on and you are left dripping with shame as the virtuosos are called in, and with scathing ridicule your frankencode is discarded, never to see the light of main() again. You had best be gone, moved on, with lesson learned at this point, curio.

Hehe, nice one Hog.

The problem is that a high proportion of "programmers" are rote learners who never get to the deeper understanding and conceptual problem solving + exploration.

Tell me about it - I despair when other developers come to me with simple problems without bothering to try to get a deeper understanding about their environment, tools and the goal they're trying to accomplish. Think for yourself, ffs.

- Why would the florb sprocket give error code 42?
- Have you checked A, B, C? What about X, Y, Z? The florb sprocket documentation says 42 is a connection problem - this might sound stupid, but is the network cable plugged in?
- Uh, no I just googled "florb sprocket error code 42" and the first result didn't work so now I don't know what to do.

I love the open lounge style graffiti wall drink all you want Espresso while playing pin ball machines.. but where is all that at 4am after a 36 hour coding marathon because some sales guy promised a feature that didnt exist.

For a requirement the client didn't realise they had.

"Our project needs someone to write an ethernet driver and tcp/ip stack for a bare-metal system. Do you have any experience with that?"

I just recoiled in horror. The couple semesters of MIPS at uni was more than enough for me.

Ideal sales person there.

Which is fine if the scope is amended to include the change.

HAHHAAHAHAHAHAAHAH oh man, what a lark!

not sure if serious considering that most furniture consumed in the word is cheap flat pack s*** made by automation or sweatshop labour in asia.

haha good point, though maybe that's why it's so hard to get a good cabinet maker, not a chippie - mind you - a fine craftsman

http://theinterrobang.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Nick-Offerman-Canoe.jpg

wish I was a real man like Ron Swanson and not a software developer

almost 10 years doing this s*** and I've never been invited to the graffiti room with free espresso, I've been invited to a 20% pay cut though that was fun