
Why one company is making all its employees learn how to code - jolie
http://venturebeat.com/2012/04/27/everyone-must-code/
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tlrobinson
A lot of people seem to be offended by this, or think it's a waste of time. I
think you need to realize there's a difference between learning to code and
being a professional programmer.

I see "programming" as a skill like "writing" or "basic math" that everyone
should know something about. We all know how to write and do some math but we
don't call ourselves "writers" or "mathematicians".

But you'd never claim it's worthless to learn how to write or do arithmetic.
Why not programming?

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pjin
A lot of people do claim it's worthless to learn math or, at an extreme,
writing correctly. That's part of the problem.

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capkutay
I'm having trouble understanding what "learn to code" means for most people.
It's almost obnoxious when business types propose "learning to code" in a
nonchalant manner as though people don't spend decades developing their
programming skills. Yes, you may take codecademy tutorials and have a slight
understanding of js syntax...but I wouldn't expect you to build anything of
value.

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nudge
Do you feel the same way about learning to speak foreign languages and play
musical instruments? Is it obnoxious for a person to teach introductory French
night classes, when fluency will take years and may never be possible for the
students given their other commitments? What if it is not even likely that
they will ever have French-language conversations "of value"? Does the very
act of proposing learning this new skill insult French speakers everywhere?

I keep encountering this attitude among programmers, that the idea of
"learning" is something that is the completion of a journey of worthiness.
It's extremely disappointing.

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BryanB55
Exactly. I don't know why I've been hearing this so much lately. I've been
researching about learning to use 3D software (3dsmax) and I get the same
responses that I hear about learning to code: "oh it is very difficult and it
will takes at least 5-10 years to be able to build anything of quality"
Personally, I think if it takes you 10 years to become decent at anything,
then you are doing it wrong.

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arijo
If you find the 10 year rule absurd, take a look at this paper:
[http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs/freakonomics/pdf/D...](http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs/freakonomics/pdf/DeliberatePractice\(PsychologicalReview\).pdf)

~~~
MaysonL
Then again, there's no speed limit: <http://sivers.org/kimo>

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deedub
All these comments about "no value" are hilarious. Honestly I dont think
"serious programming" even matters. It's people learning, for example, that
the 30 min daily process they do in excel can actually be a script that takes
one second to run. The company is already seeing benefits to the culture and
soon people will be thinking differently. That's a win.

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MSM
I think that's equivalent to asking everyone to go to chef's school and
describing the upside as 'People will realize that peeling potatoes can be
done in a quarter the time they're doing it now!'

It's just... why? These people aren't going to be doing any programming daily.
Why don't you take all that money, and all that time and let each non-
programmer go to a deep dive conference of their choice for whatever their
discipline is. Seems like a much better use of resources.

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deedub
MSM, I know it can be hard to see for many people but sometimes diving deeper
into your box is the wrong approach. Your example is perfect. Someone went and
took classes that were a "waste of time" and ended up 75% more efficient
because they looked at something from a different view...even though they
didn't become a chef. This is exactly how people need to be leading their
companies.

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jtchang
That's awesome. Imagine working in an all Spanish workplace and refusing to
learn at least some Spanish. I think everyone benefits from learning a bit of
the language. You don't have to be fluent but even knowing the slightest bit
gets you a lot more respect. You can see this when visiting foreign countries.
Understanding and writing code should be the basics.

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mcantelon
Partaking in expensive management fads is, perhaps, God's way of telling you
you've got more funding than you need.

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matthewowen
I'm really uncomfortable with the term 'learning to code', because when I read
it makes me think that the company wants its employees to know in what
circumstances you should and shouldn't use semicolons in Javascript, or what
methods are available to strings in Python.

I don't think those things are useful unless you're actually writing code.

What is useful is understanding how software (and, for a lot of people, web
software in particular) fits together. That means understanding what might
make something computationally expensive, or understanding the
advantages/disadvantages of loosely coupled components (etc etc).

This isn't to say that people 'learning to code' isn't a step in the right
direction, but I don't think it's an end in itself, and for most people,
writing code is only a doorway to that understanding if they have the time to
take on projects that involve those problems.

What we need isn't lots of people who can do 'hello world'. It is people who
are technologically literate. That needs to be the focus and goal.

~~~
rm445
You would hope in the long term it would mean that everyone could write code
that is relevant to their job, and automate tasks where possible.

I suspect this company is just trying to spread awareness throughout the
company of what the coders do. But there must be countless efficiencies
available in business, especially non-tech businesses, if people were able to
automate.

If it were up to me, the aim would be to have secretaries and receptionists,
sales staff and (non-software) engineers all able to write scripts to aid
their work, in whatever language or environment was most relevant. Even if you
start them off with Python tutorials so everyone can learn the basics
together.

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dan_yall
Maybe next year all the programmers can learn accounting.

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wtvanhest
Yeap. And marketing staff can learn HR rules.

~~~
wtvanhest
Even better, they should also teach the HR team finance.

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kylemaxwell
This makes sense to me for a number of reasons.

1) This can help people understand the tools that could assist them with their
normal day jobs as hey gain the confidence to look into writing scripts and
macros. IT staff in particular frequently lack any coding (scripting) skills
unless they themselves are developers or Unix sysadmins.

2) They will have a better understanding of the web technologies they run
across in their daily lives. This applies especially well to Codecademy users
who learn JavaScript. 3) Learning to code teaches you to break a problem into
parts and think analytically. Our society could use more people with good
critical thinking skills, we can probably all agree.

4) Everyone in an enterprise should have a core understanding of the elements
of major functions. Yes, this means programmers should understand the very
basics of finance and human resources and probably other areas that don't
occur to me at the moment.

There are two kinds of elitism: believing that decisions should be made by the
most informed and qualified individuals versus believing that those who do not
belong to the "elite" have no business even dabbling in affairs beyond their
supposed comprehension. The latter isn't healthy to any organization, much
less broader society.

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typicalrunt
Why not go the other way and make all employees learn about business and
financial matters? Or would that be too dangerous, allowing for employees to
become entrepreneurs and, possibly, lose them to their own startups?

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grout
Based on that picture, I pity the employees.

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omerta
There's a big difference between learning syntax and learning to code.

