"But what about the magic of version control, GitHub, pull requests, forking clones, cloning forks, diffing forks, forking diffs, etc., etc., etc.? None of that matters for someone who works with binary file formats (i.e., user culture) rather than plain-text formats (i.e., programmer culture). There was such a disconnect between the two cultures that it was hard for me to come up with responses to these sorts of “why use X rather than Y” questions without sounding either incomprehensible or patronizing."
1. Is he seriously implying that version control is just some arcane thing that Unix programmers do, and that it's bull shit that students have to learn it?
2. If you can't answer students' questions about why these CLI tools are needed, then that does not mean there are no good reasons--it means you don't know, because you don't understand yourself.
"It's comically absurd that the most sophisticated computer programmers nowadays are still using an interface that's remained unchanged since before humans landed on the moon. What the duck?!?"
"Students are starting to grow suspicious: These instructors are supposed to be expert programmers, but their tools look pretty primitive to me."
This is a problem of perception, both on the students and on the professor's part, not a problem of reality. Do you think there's a reason that programmers still use these interfaces decades later? I'll give you a hint: it's not because they don't like change.
1. He is implying the students believe it. From their point of view, the CLI does look arcane, primitive, and useless.
2. it's more complicated than that. Yes, if you understand something, you can explain it. No, you can't automatically explain it in 5 minutes. Sometimes, the knowledge gap is so great that you need months to explain it all. In 5 minutes, you can only make claims your students will feel entitled not to believe if they feel like it. If your claims don't match their experience, and you have not demonstrated trustworthiness, they simply won't believe you, then tune out. http://lesswrong.com/lw/kg/expecting_short_inferential_dista...
"But what about the magic of version control, GitHub, pull requests, forking clones, cloning forks, diffing forks, forking diffs, etc., etc., etc.? None of that matters for someone who works with binary file formats (i.e., user culture) rather than plain-text formats (i.e., programmer culture). There was such a disconnect between the two cultures that it was hard for me to come up with responses to these sorts of “why use X rather than Y” questions without sounding either incomprehensible or patronizing."
1. Is he seriously implying that version control is just some arcane thing that Unix programmers do, and that it's bull shit that students have to learn it? 2. If you can't answer students' questions about why these CLI tools are needed, then that does not mean there are no good reasons--it means you don't know, because you don't understand yourself.
"It's comically absurd that the most sophisticated computer programmers nowadays are still using an interface that's remained unchanged since before humans landed on the moon. What the duck?!?"
"Students are starting to grow suspicious: These instructors are supposed to be expert programmers, but their tools look pretty primitive to me."
This is a problem of perception, both on the students and on the professor's part, not a problem of reality. Do you think there's a reason that programmers still use these interfaces decades later? I'll give you a hint: it's not because they don't like change.