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Ask Slashdot: Do Kids Still Take Interest In Programming For Its Own Sake?
nirgle writes "I have been wondering lately if there are any kids interested in programming for its own sake anymore. When I was my nephew's age, computers were still fascinating: There wasn't a laptop on every table, facebook wasn't splattered on every screen, and you couldn't get any question answered in just a couple seconds with Google. When I was 10, I would have done anything for a close programming mentor instead of the 5-foot high stack of books that I had to read cover-to-cover on my own. So I was happy when my nephew started asking about learning to do what "Uncle Jay does." Does the responsibility now shift to us to kindle early fires in computer science, or is programming now just another profession for the educational system to manage?"
Another reader pointed out a related post on the Invent with Python blog titled "Nobody wants to learn how to program."
You're one hell of a fast typer to submit this comment at same time as this post was published without subscription to help you.
Well, not surprising considering you need to karma-whore right now to post comments like this one (note the timestamps there as well).
And here I thought DCTech/InsightIn140Bytes/InterestingFella et al. have left the building.
And yep, programming games and sandboxes for yourself is probably what submitter meant by "programming for it's own sake". Did you enjoy playing those unfinished games, or did you enjoy thinking about the possible end result, or did you enjoy tinkering with algorithms for "AI and the general gameplay mechanics" and seeing them come to live? If the latter, then you were programming for programming's sake.