News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Ask HN: Is “learn to code” now “learn to drive a big rig”? by feoren on Thursday February 09, 2023 @02:47PM (#34730207)
No, "learn to code" is now "learn to read".

Long ago, people could get work as a scribe or scrivener -- knowing how to read and write was, on its own, enough to get you a job. As literacy became more prevalent, it wasn't enough to "just read". You had to "read and ____". Similar to business; I would not recommend someone get "just a business degree" so they can apply to any company in the world. I'd recommend they get a "business degree and ____" to target a specific industry or role.

The same is slowly happening with programming. As the spectrum of what "programming" means continues to widen, and as code-literacy becomes more and more common, it's going to be harder to get a job as "just a programmer". So learn to code, And.

Re:Ask HN: Is “learn to code” now “learn to drive a big rig”? by jstx1 on Thursday February 09, 2023 @03:06PM (#34730545)
While some stuff is slowly becoming more accessible, the deeper end of technology gets deeper and deeper - complex systems with many moving parts operating on many different levels of abstraction.
Re:Ask HN: Is “learn to code” now “learn to drive a big rig”? by f8o on Thursday February 09, 2023 @03:45PM (#34731158)
I'm not sure about these comparisons because even with more and more people learning scripting and/or a few DSLs for their industries Software Engineering is still a carrer. Deeper knowledge and experience matters.
Re:Ask HN: Is “learn to code” now “learn to drive a big rig”? by dghlsakjg on Thursday February 09, 2023 @05:14PM (#34732397)
You need to work with some Gen. A or whatever comes after gen z.

They have a level of computer literacy that is shockingly bad. They use computers everyday, but only within the walled gardens of google classroom/iOs/Android.

I taught an after school HTML/CSS for grade school age kids, and the majority of them didn't know about the concept of a directory structure. Even just saving a text file (instead of having a file autosave to their google drive) was a foreign concept.

Kids these days very much are NOT digital natives in the way that millenials and Gen x were.

Re:Ask HN: Is “learn to code” now “learn to drive a big rig”? by type0 on Thursday February 09, 2023 @08:38PM (#34734507)
What is really troubling is that many kids are impatient with technology (thank tiktok and other apps for that) so coding is the worst they could imagine.