

Letter to a young programmer - Anon84
http://neopythonic.blogspot.ca/2013/10/letter-to-young-programmer.html?utm_content=bufferb5a52&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer

======
AlexanderDhoore
From SICP [1]:

This book is dedicated, in respect and admiration, to the spirit that lives in
the computer.

"I think that it's extraordinarily important that we in computer science keep
fun in computing. When it started out, it was an awful lot of fun. Of course,
the paying customers got shafted every now and then, and after a while we
began to take their complaints seriously. We began to feel as if we really
were responsible for the successful, error-free perfect use of these machines.
I don't think we are. I think we're responsible for stretching them, setting
them off in new directions, and keeping fun in the house. I hope the field of
computer science never loses its sense of fun. Above all, I hope we don't
become missionaries. Don't feel as if you're Bible salesmen. The world has too
many of those already. What you know about computing other people will learn.
Don't feel as if the key to successful computing is only in your hands. What's
in your hands, I think and hope, is intelligence: the ability to see the
machine as more than when you were first led up to it, that you can make it
more."

Alan J. Perlis (April 1, 1922-February 7, 1990)

[1] [http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/](http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/)

~~~
fsck--off
Here's my favorite SICP related quote:

    
    
      Somebody mailed me a copy of SICP. Now what would they mean
      by that...? 
    
      - Guido van Rossum, May 18 2009
    

[https://twitter.com/gvanrossum/status/1838308947](https://twitter.com/gvanrossum/status/1838308947)

------
cowmixtoo
When I taught Python to my kid and a few other kids that live around my house
a coupl of years ago, Guido was gracious enough to sign these head-shots for
me to give to each kids as their graduation present.

[https://plus.google.com/photos/108306457281321389001/albums/...](https://plus.google.com/photos/108306457281321389001/albums/5481524592745079409/5481524622697723122?pid=5481524622697723122&oid=108306457281321389001)

~~~
city41
I'm not sure what to make of that. It feels both nice and oddly narcissistic
at the same time. I'm not that familiar with Guido though, maybe I just don't
understand his style.

~~~
mekoka
It's Python humour.

~~~
city41
Thanks, that makes more sense :)

------
krrishd
As a young programmer, I cannot be more lucky than this. Right now, you can
learn virtually any programming language (such as Python), online, so the fact
that I'm not old enough to get a college degree doesn't matter.

~~~
mattsfrey
And before then, we had the public library! Good ole ANSI C FTW

~~~
dijit
The only Programming book in Coventry City library (where I'm from) was a 10
year old COBOL book.

I now know COBOL.

I've always known COBOL; before I knew linux, I knew COBOL.

not sure how that effects my mentality be, but, I would say that it's lack of
structurability has rubbed off on me largely.

------
themodelplumber
Very nice to see a blog post with this headline that isn't full of sarcasm or
finger-wagging or self praise. It was a good reminder to me that positive
messages, simply put, are worth the little time it takes to write them. I need
to keep more of my own rants in my drafts folder. :-) Thanks Guido!

------
moomin
Point of fact: computers aren't really getting faster anymore. Well, phones
and tablets still are, but desktops and servers? Not so much.

~~~
quchen
Single CPUs don't, but the number of cores does grow. GPUs are also worth
considering here.

What does not get faster is programs written for old architectures. 20 years
ago the best way to optimize a program was waiting a decade. That won't work
today, and to make programs future-proof they have to scale to a lot of
threads.

~~~
rubiquity
s/threads/cores/g

------
systems
a bit of topic

but I remember I read something for guido van rossum, i always wanted to find
it again, and read it to remember the details

what i remember of it, is that guido was saying something in the line of ...
that one can spend tremendous amount of time editing html, crafting html by
hand, and make it perfect ... but that this would be a waste of time because
most developers nowadays use template engines that generate html, or use
WYSIWYG tool ... and that we should focus on more interesting problems

again, it was something like that, i tried to find it, since for ever, to get
a better read of this view ... but i just cant

maybe my memory is tricking me, maybe it was not guido

but anyway, this quote in the article reminded me of this statement ... the
idea ... that we should find more interesting problems that we can use
computers for

------
tonga
While Python as a high-level language cannot control the hardware like C and
assembly do, I think Guido is urging Pythonists to learn C as a second
language to prepare for the software-hardware interaction world?

------
brandonhsiao
Python was my third language; I wish it had been my first. It's just so fun to
write and wonderful to look at. C (my first) is also fun to write, but not
when you're young--not as much as Python is.

~~~
kristoffer
I remember having lots of fun with C as a teenager. This was in the early 90s.
We wrote games and demos using mode 13h (320x200 1 byte/pixel) in DOS (thus
pretty much bare metal).

Those were the days. I think it was the perfect way to get started with
programming :-)

~~~
jdiez17
You can still play around with computers like that! In fact, just `pacman -S
qemu` and you're set! Mode 13h is awesome. I wrote a little quine[1] in x86,
using mode 13h.

[1]
[https://github.com/jdiez17/quines/tree/master/bootable_quine](https://github.com/jdiez17/quines/tree/master/bootable_quine)

------
teni
... and this is a great time to become a programmer.

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lazydon
That great stuff and especially when writing after about two years of no posts
on his blog.

------
onedev
The simple messages are often one of the most powerful.

------
tylerdurd3n
Guido van Rossum (inventor of Python)... ok, talk to me when the inventor of
your favourite language has won a Turing Award.

~~~
naradaellis
My dad could easily beat up your dad

