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A comment on We only hire the trendiest. Parent comment

Re:We only hire the trendiest by zeveb on Monday March 21, 2016 @10:30AM (#11328282)
As with much of Spolsky's writing, it's a really fun piece to read, and thought-provoking too. But I think the bigger distinction between Unix and Windows is not differential valuation of programmers and non-programmers: it's believing that non-programmers exist or not. From the Unix perspective, everyone is a programmer, and that is appropriate: anyone is capable of directing a computer to achieve tasks. From the Windows perspective, programmers are wizards who deliver things to end-users (and there are higher programmers who deliver things to lesser programmers as well, which is why proprietary software is okay).

I'm pretty firmly in the Unix camp on this. 'I can't program' should be as rare as 'I can't read.'

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Re:We only hire the trendiest by TheOtherHobbes on Monday March 21, 2016 @11:34AM (#11328784)
Programming exists so most people don't need to program - in the same way that other professions exist so most people don't need to become experts in medicine, law, engineering, building trades, or car maintenance.

What makes programming so special that it needs to be different here?

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Re:We only hire the trendiest by zeveb on Monday March 21, 2016 @11:40AM (#11328831)
> Programming exists so most people don't need to program - in the same way that other professions exist so most people don't need to become experts in medicine, law, engineering, building trades, or car maintenance.

You might as well write, 'reading exists so most people don't need to read,' which would be equivalently true.

> What makes programming so special that it needs to be different here?

Because directing computers to perform work is as fundamental a skill in the modern world as is reading. Yes, there are people nowadays who cannot read, and there are some few jobs for them. But there aren't many, and it's not a good place to be.

Programming is not a specialised skill: it is a general skill with applicability in almost every field of human endeavour.

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