> I think, most people have potential to be able to code. By "can" I mean if they applied themselves to learning.
My time spent teaching makes me think otherwise. I saw so many smart, motivated young people who simply could not get their homework done. This was especially discouraging since my alma matter has a very strong focus on pedagogical programming.
There's something about programming that "clicks" for some people. They can look a the little pieces and immediately understand how to put them together. If you don't have that spark it's going to be an extremely challenging journey.
Re:Cognitive Biases in Software Development
by commandlinefan on Tuesday March 31, 2020 @10:14AM
(#22737697)
> If you are getting paid a lot it means you must be valuable, no?
And if you actually are experienced and try to offer a newcomer some guidance in writing code that they won't regret having written a year from now, they'll accuse you of being a "perfectionist" who's wasting time trying to obtain some theoretical optimization.
Re:Cognitive Biases in Software Development
by pythonaut_16 on Tuesday March 31, 2020 @11:50AM
(#22738724)
Unfortunately that mentality isn't limited only to newcomers. There are plenty of developers with many years of experience who still practice that same short sightedness.
I think, most people have potential to be able to code. By "can" I mean if they applied themselves to learning.
The problem is there's just no easy way to somehow transfer the knowledge and experience of what it means to actually code. The Doening-Kruger effect is in full force because you can't tell if you can code until you can. Moreover, almost every technology today must cater to complete beginners so it is easy to write a Hello World but then there is no way to tell you how to put your solution together. There is nuggets of wisdom but you need to have some prerequisite knowledge and experience to make use of them.
It is easy to see that I can't sight-read music. I mean I am amateur flautist but for some reason I just can't "get it" (but I also did not try hard). I know you can sight read because there are a lot people that can just take a printout and start playing it without previously studying it.
The same is not true with programming. It is not easy to see people do programming -- you only see results that you do not understand until you actually can code. You can appreciate the music but you can't appreciate the code until you actually can code.
It does not help that the whole industry is crazy right now. There is very small proportion of people with actual experience because of exponential growth of number of developers. The salaries are inflated and newcomers are getting paid as if they were experts in other industries. If you are getting paid a lot it means you must be valuable, no?