Stephen Wolfram's Free Book Teaches the Wolfram Language To Kids

theodp writes: Stephen Wolfram received a PhD in particle physics at age 20 (his thesis committee included Richard Feynman). So it's probably not too surprising that Wolfram's new book, An Elementary Introduction to the Wolfram Language (free on the web), aspires to teach those new to programming how to do much more than just move Minecraft and Star Wars characters around. "The goal of the book," explains Wolfram in a blog post, "is to take people from zero to the point where they know enough about the Wolfram Language that they can routinely use it to create programs for things they want to do. And when I say 'zero', I really mean 'zero'. This is a book for everyone. It doesn't assume any knowledge of programming, or math (beyond basic arithmetic), or anything else. It just starts from scratch and explains things. I've tried to make it appropriate for both adults and kids. I think it'll work for typical kids aged about 12 and up."

Comments

Re:Stephen Wolfram's greatest talent

[OzPeter]

The older I get, the more I've learned that these wunderkind child prodigies that get advanced degrees before they're old enough to drink (in the US) are more the result of political connections and corruption (and probably gaslighting asshole managers) than anything else.

I seriously doubt that anyone who had Richard Feynman on his thesis committee skated by on his degree.

Re:Stephen Wolfram's greatest talent

[jheath314]

I myself was curious, so I looked it up on Wikipedia.

Seems like he educated himself in particle physics when he was very young (started publishing papers at age 15), got accepted early by St. John's College when he applied at age 17, switched to CalTech at age 19, and got his Ph.D. a year later.

Now, obviously he was allowed to fast forward through the years of grinding that are normally required before you can enter college or work on a Ph.D. thesis. Given that he was already publishing widely cited physics papers at the age of 18, that was probably a good call on the part of his instructors.