

When Code Is Hot - nsns
http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/07/when-code-is-hot/

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cantbecool
Jon sounds similar to a spoiled child when someone else brings the same toy to
1st grade show and tell. Jon, you're not unique and there are millions of
future programmers that will start learning to code in the next few months,
curriculum just has to adapt and change to make it easier for newcomers to
grok. It really grinds my gears when he basically said anyone doing
programming grunt work shouldn't be programming. Everyone has to start
somewhere.

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pedrobeltrao
I think the author of the post is completely underestimating how many
different fields require some proficiency in managing data. I work in biology
(genomics and proteomics) and I teach a summer course to biomed PhD students
where I try to convince them that it is essential to learn some aspects of
data mining, including a scripting language (Python/Perl) and/or R/Matlab. To
be successful in bio-medical research these days you need to be able to reach
out to available datasets that relate to your work and combine them with your
own observations.Each experiment is also producing a lot more observations
than in the past so you need to be able to handle larger datasets as well. My
impression is that anyone who does not have some proficiency in programming
will not be able to compete in these areas of research. This does not mean
that we have to be able to do great code and build great software, a small
increase in programming skills really goes a long way. My impression is that
this is not just true in biology but it is happening everywhere (ex. business
intelligence, social sciences, marketing, etc).

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psycho
"Learning how to program for its own sake is like learning French purely on
the off chance that you one day find yourself in Paris".

And I don't think, it's bad or wrong in fact - you may learn anything you want
just as a hobby - just for exercising your brain. And it will be great if a
business guy, for example, will understand a programmer way of thinking.

I can tell my story - guess, it'll be somehow interesting. I was a "business
guy" not long ago and I think, I am still. But when I started to work on
Travelatus with my partner, I decided to learn to code - just to be helpful
someday and to understand the product better. It was in November 2011 when I
started to learn Django and Python, then in 2012 I started Codeacademy
courses.

It was interesting to find out that here (in Moscow) there was no strong
Django community that could be useful for developers networking. So, as
business guy trying to learn I cooperated with 2 partners to build such
community. That's how "business thinking" helped me and other developers, I
guess.

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j_baker
We don't treat any other profession this way. Do civil engineers have a
specific bridge they'd like to build before they become engineers? Or do
accountants have a specific balance sheet they'd like to create before they
get their degree?

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rezendi
We do treat _creative_ professions this way. But reasonable people can
disagree about whether programming is creative.

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Mc_Big_G
"I am skeptical of the notion that many people who start learning to code in
their 30s or even 20s will ever really grok the fundamental abstract notions
of software architecture and design."

This is an incredibly silly sentence.

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berntb
I just don't get that memories of bubbles are so short. This everyone-learn-
to-code is just like 1997 or so, a few years before the big IT death.

~~~
psycho
That doesn't by itself mean that the fact that everybody's learning to code
will bring to some catastrophe.

~~~
berntb
I compare with the heuristic, that when even mainstream newspapers start
writing about investments in the stock market, it is time to leave. Just like
1999.

Computer programming is, in my experience, a cyclical job market. And not
always in phase with the general economy.

