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Go R, Young Man
theodp (442580) writes " Learning to code has become a mainstream fascination," writes Brian Liou in Why are YOU learning to code?, "but all the evangelization has been misleading. The problem in our Chris-Bosh-codes-so-should-you society is that people learn to code without first asking "for what purpose do you want to use code?" What in your day-to-day work could you actually automate using code? Let's face it, your odds of creating the next hot iPhone app aren't great, but the spreadsheets you look at everyday or the strategic business decisions you or your company makes? Coding can help you with those. Coding to better understand data would help everyone." Leada co-founder Liou's advice? "So to all non-technical professionals looking to get technical: If you want to become a software engineer, by all means learn Ruby or go through the JavaScript tutorials on Codecademy. But if you're simply a business professional looking to gain an edge on your peers, trust me, you are much better off learning R." So, did Mark Zuckerberg steer 100 million K-12 coder wannabes down the wrong path with the JavaScript and Ruby preaching?"
What does 'you don't learn to program in a vacuum' have to do with the statement 'you have to choose a programming language to learn with'?
It was quite clear. To learn to program you must learn programming languages. Learning to program is not independent of learning a programming language.
I learned QBASIC, then C, then Java, then Python, and only by the fourth stage did I consider that I'd learned anything close to 'how to program'. Had I started with R I'd probably be 10 steps behind where I am now. /quote
Good for you, but this story is for non-technical people whose job is not as a programmer. The article isn't addressing you.
"The average person doesn't have that much time to invest if it isn't their career."
I want to agree with you, I really do. But I see this as the biggest problem with our society today.
Coding skills should be a mandatory part of public education.
We don't complain that people don't know how to average a set of numbers, or determine the unit price at the grocery store, then say 'well average people don't have time to learn that stuff' but we try our absolute best to teach EVERYONE such basic skills.
Programming should NOT be any different.
What on earth is a non programmer going to do with that? You're comparing a highly specialized skill that takes years to learn compared to a basic instinctive skill that takes an hour at most. You shouldn't be comparing it to averaging numbers, you should be comparing it to forging. Everyone should learn how to craft a pan from iron! That's not quite an equal, as it actually would help most, but it's close enough. What should be taught is logic - that would actually help people to think systematically. Programming is just an application of that.
"Set a man a fire, he'll be warm for the rest of the night. Set a man afire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life."