Basic programming is fundamentally formal logic in executable form. Learning it provides people with a basic understanding of how the machines around them work, what might go wrong when they break, and teaches them what is fast becoming the new global language (binary, sort of, this analogy is kind of being stretched). The point is not for everyone to enter the computer industry, the point is for everyone to have at least some level of awareness the same way we teach the scientific method in schools.
Something about this struck me as odd – having interned in the Windows org in Redmond, there are no such things as “business managers” – this may be a byproduct of Sinofsky’s leadership, but up to the VP level core product teams only have SDEs (devs), SDETs (tests), and PMs (program managers). GPMs and others above the manager level were busy with meetings for much of their days, but the ICs were not expected to be at all of those, so the obsession with colorful boxes he describes wasn’t something I ever witnessed. Maybe his experience was with a different product, but Windows and Office are certainly quite different from this.
