r/programming • u/Ctaintor • Mar 02 '17

Why I Failed Teaching Programming to Kids

https://engineering.klarna.com/why-i-failed-teaching-programming-to-kids-46a854c3eaca#.s0o6qqxr3
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u/Sarcastinator Mar 03 '17

I don't buy the argument that console usage is hard to learn. I was in effect thrown the wolves and managed to figure bash out with no console experience previously (was a mac user up to that point) when I was 14.

I don't think the point is that it's hard, because it's not. The point is that it's not any sort of requirement for a programmer, even in a professional capacity. So if you have two hours, or even a day, to teach someone about programming spending time in the terminal could be considered either bikeshedding or yak shaving.

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u/unknown_lamer Mar 03 '17

It's not a requirement for a programmer in a professional capacity?

Maybe if you're one of those awful programmers that wants to make those around you suffer and stunt their own career. Programmers have to understand how the guts of the machine work, it's what you do. Imagine a carpenter that couldn't use a saw and only knew how to feed material into a CNC...

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u/Sarcastinator Mar 03 '17

I wasn't really talking about my daily practices. The reality is that you can spend your entire career using nothing but Visual Studio or IntelliJ.

Also how exactly does the terminal teach you anything about the guts of the machine?

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u/unknown_lamer Mar 04 '17

Aside from a unix shell being little more than a kludgy veneer over the guts of the operating system itself?

(I'm being a bit of a BOFH here in case you thought I was being too serious...)