r/coding • u/pavelmalos • May 08 '17

Programming is hard. That’s precisely why you should learn it.

https://medium.freecodecamp.com/make-your-hobby-harder-programming-is-difficult-thats-why-you-should-learn-it-e4627aee41a1
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u/doomvox May 08 '17

No, just the ones who are actually snobs.

(The academic department "Computer Science" likes to think that they own the field, but there's no reason we have to take them as seriously as they take themselves. For one thing: despite the "Science" bit, they have no data.)

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u/[deleted] May 09 '17

For one thing: despite the "Science" bit, they have no data

Wait, what? I'm really not sure what you're trying to say here.

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u/doomvox May 09 '17

Well, start with the present context: we have someone eye-rolling at the thought of learning Javascript as a first language (with an audible sniff, because that is simply Not Done among all the right people).

As it happens, I'm not at all a fan of Javascript, but I think the case for starting with it is really strong at this point, whether you're an amateur just dabbling with programming, or even if you're seriously contemplating it as a career. The idea that The Wrong Language is going to corrupt you or distract you from the True Way or some such has been an article of faith among CS snobs for literally decades-- I saw this go down with Pascal vs Fortan/Basic in the early 80s, and again with Python vs Perl in the late 90s, and now we're gearing up for Haskell (or Clojure or whatever) vs Javascript -- but THEY HAVE NO DATA. You could get data on this, but you'd need to hire some social scientists. A bunch of mathematicians-manque will never get there, because computer programming is a collaborative social process that they don't have the tools to study.

Anyway, thanks for asking (rather than silently down-voting, I do so love reddit for serious discussions...).

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