Read "Why I Contributed to FujoGuide"

[ysabetwordsmith]

enigmalea has a thoughtful post over on Tumblr about the challenges of learning to code.

Comments

[mdlbear]

Thanks!

I'm nowhere near FujoGuide's target demographic*, but I'm supporting the project because anything that gets more people outside the software development community using git and so on is a Good Thing.

* I found "I wrote my first lines of code in 1996 (yes, I’m old AF)." particularly amusing, but that's just me.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> I'm nowhere near FujoGuide's target demographic*, <<

Neither am I. The most coding I can do is stuff like putting a link in a comment.

>> but I'm supporting the project because anything that gets more people outside the software development community using git and so on is a Good Thing.<<

Same here. I want more diverse people to have the tools to make things, because the current offerings mostly suck.

>> * I found "I wrote my first lines of code in 1996 (yes, I’m old AF)." particularly amusing, but that's just me. <<

My mother learned to code on paper tapes.

I worked with computers in junior high and high school in the 1980s, so that's when I was typing in code. I wasn't good at it. I know how it's supposed to work, but computers so routinely misbehave around me that coding is doomed to failure, even not counting the visual issues. Hell, the PLATO computers at Uni High used to crash when I walked in the room!

Old is relative though. The tech industry is so dominated by youth that any degree in computers effectively expires a few years after it's printed. Nobody tells college freshmen that they're paying tens of thousands of dollars for something that's only usable to employers for about 3 years, 5 max ... and of course, it's hard for new graduates to get a job, so that narrows the window further. If you don't have an in, like an internship, you're wasting your money unless you plan to work for yourself writing apps or something.

Re: Thoughts

[mdlbear]

My mother learned to code on paper tapes.

grin So did I.

Nobody tells college seniors that they'll have to learn more in the first four months at work than they did in four years of college. All their degree does is get them past HR.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

I note that education in general is overhyped nowadays. People say you need it for life, but it teaches very little everyday skills anymore; and for work, but it rarely teaches things you actually need on the job. Most of it's just lard, and the stuff that's genuinely useful is presented in abstract rather than practical terms, so students rarely know how to use it. This wastes everyone's time, money, and energy while accomplishing very little.

To get job-relevant education, you need either a trade school or certain "applied" or "bachelor of science" degrees that actually do focus on skill use. Well, a lot of places have an entrepreneurship program and those are usually good. But a trade school? I've seen a farrier program where they dissect horse legs. Now that is practical, because you need to know where all the parts are in order to avoid basic problems or make corrective shoes at more advanced levels.

This is why Terramagne-America has a much more diversified educational array. People can find ways of learning and topics of study that play to their strengths. It's more efficient, more effective, and more healthy.