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Why President Obama Was Held Back a Year Before Starting Code School (quora.com)

Posted by samzenpus on from the working-it-out dept.

theodp writes: Microsoft is boasting that UK Prime Minister David Cameron learned to code during this year's Hour of Code thanks to its Minecraft-themed tutorial, much like US President Barack Obama learned to code during 2014's Hour of Code thanks to Disney's Frozen Princess-themed tutorial. Interestingly, according to a recent Quora post by Code.org CEO Hadi Partovi, plans to have President Obama 'learn to code' a year earlier were torpedoed by the Healthcare.gov debacle. "We launched the first Hour of Code campaign, in 2013," explains Partovi. "We launched the first Hour of Code on the home page of Google, in every Apple Store, and we had convinced the President to issue a speech about computer science. But it was impossible to get the president to actually write any code that year — the administration had just launched its Healthcare.gov website, and after the infamous technical failures, nobody wanted the visual of website failing while the President is learning to code."

25 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. Photoshop, please! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I request an image of Obama learning to code on healthcare.gov

    1. Re:Photoshop, please! by epyT-R · · Score: 3, Funny

      If he can code, then he can fix healthcare.gov

    2. Re:Photoshop, please! by invictusvoyd · · Score: 2

      Hulk Hogan is a better programmer than Obama . Maybe you should ask him.

    3. Re: Photoshop, please! by GodelEscherBlecch · · Score: 5, Informative

      Went on it last week and it worked quite well and was a damn sight more informative and easy to use than the sites provided by my own insurance company / employer. Just sayin'.

    4. Re:Photoshop, please! by mysidia · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I think being able to type moveForward(100); is a far cry from actually being able to code.

      Being able to write off a few lines or follow a tutorial, or hold a sword, and slash some rabbits, does not a Jedi make.

    5. Re:Photoshop, please! by davide+marney · · Score: 3

      If he can code, then coding obviously isn't very hard; politicians generally aren't the brightest bulbs on the Christmas tree.

      I never understood this passion for teaching people to code. Writing code is like drawing with crayons, language-wise. In fact, it's problem is that it is too simple, so simple that there are absolutely no ambiguities or shades of meaning. Normal language speakers have to train themselves to NOT think normally, in order to code well. It's like giving a painter 64 crayons and telling him or her to draw the Mona Lisa. Well, that's 3 strokes of Blue, 1 of Yellow, 2 of Green, 1 of Purple and a dash of Black, then Grey. There. That's the color of that shaded portion under her right thumb.

      I've written two such "languages" of my own, and have learned about six more. I never found any of them particularly difficult. Programming is thinking. Thinking -- not coding -- is what's hard.

      --
      "We receive as friendly that which agrees with, we resist with dislike that which opposes us" - Faraday
    6. Re:Photoshop, please! by bondsbw · · Score: 2

      I never understood this passion for teaching people to code.

      The more people who can code, the less worth a coder is. Plenty of companies would like to reduce their software development related costs.

      --
      All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
    7. Re:Photoshop, please! by GodelEscherBlecch · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You obviously disagree that it was a good idea, but passing the ACA even in it's neutered net state was not 'optics'. You can't have it both ways - he can't be both tyrant and useless poster boy, machiavellian villain and idiot at the same time. You are free to disagree with his actions, but to deny that he has performed any just makes you look ignorant. I despise Dick Cheney, but I will never deny that he was a smart guy who knew how to put a plan in action. Maybe next time try arguing the merit of your counterpoints to his policies instead of trotting out this tired BS.

    8. Re:Photoshop, please! by GodelEscherBlecch · · Score: 2

      I'm hearing some pretty bad things monetarily that likely will be happening to it come about 2017

      Yes, sometimes despite the TV being off I think I can hear Sean Hannity too.

      And if these bad things happen, it seems you will gleefully rejoice in this failure? Millions lose healthcare and the deficit is (more) trashed, but 'yahoo! Obama failed!', is that it? If you put more effort into contributing your ideas on how to improve things rather than wanking over the failure of a person you hate, perhaps it would be easier to take anything you say seriously. Even if you disagree with the program, once it is underway the conscionable thing to do is hope that it works out to the benefit of the country. Remember when criticizing the Iraq war made you a troop-hating traitor? What does this cheerleading for failure make you?

  2. How about teaching some of the Republicans by rossdee · · Score: 3, Funny

    what the internet actually is

    1. Re:How about teaching some of the Republicans by unixisc · · Score: 2

      Maybe teach Carly encryption on an HP Itanium server running HP/UX

    2. Re:How about teaching some of the Republicans by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2, Funny

      They're still looking for the "Off" button.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    3. Re: How about teaching some of the Republicans by KGIII · · Score: 2

      Something something bees for a quarter and an onion on our belt which was the fashion at the time. Yeah, it's what I do. ;-) You *must* be new here if you're unfamiliar with it. I seem to recall that /. has a character limit now. I've not hit it in a while. I probably should find it again.

      If us old people don't tell you the stories then how will you kids remember? It's my way or writing it down.

      Ha! I just noticed your signature. You are, indeed, the audience. *nods* Maybe not the intended audience but you're the audience now. I might be a little stoned and now the missus is driving so I'll share some Emerson, Lake, and Palmer - if, for no other reason, than to while away some time and give cause to make one ponder my sanity.

      Welcome back my friends,
      To the show that never ends.
      We're so glad you could attend.
      Come inside, come inside!

      Meh, alright... I was going for the deranged madman effect 'cause I'm kind of bored and we've got a long ways to go to get to Florida. I might stop in Georgia for the night and visit the alligators in the morning but it's probably a bit chilly for the 'gators to be active. See? If you made it this far, I'm pretty sure Slashdot comment boxes are made for trolling, wasting time, and generally sharing an occasional nugget of information - topical or not. I have been mistaken.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  3. Presidential Administrations Care About Perception by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Every administration tries to orchestrate their "message." Unfortunately, they let it happen in ways that undermine their own goals. The system is designed to reward those who best manipulate the media. When I see other nations sliding toward American style campaigns, I wince. One of the side effects is that the campaigning never ends.

  4. Give me a break by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hey guys, I learned how to dress a wound with my triangular bandage, I've obviously learned medicine.

    Obama didn't learn to code, neither did that useless twat Cameron. This is all stupid publicity garbage to make leaders look like they're "hands on", but I doubt either one of them could write a program worth anything. This is just insulting to the men and women who have spent thousands of hours gaining the skills.

    1. Re:Give me a break by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Hey guys, I learned how to dress a wound with my triangular bandage, I've obviously learned medicine.

      I have a Black & Decker drill and a can of spackle.

      I guess that makes me a dentist.

      A long time ago, I was "given" a CS student to manage. I quickly noticed that he hated programming, so I asked him why he was studying CS. He answered: "Because of the money."

      I really hate it, when politicians pop up, write a "Hello World!" one liner, and then claim that they can code. They don't understand what programming is all about, and want to dismiss it as a simple skill that anyone (H1Bs) can do. Just because you can speak a few words of English as a foreign language, that doesn't mean that you can write works of Shakespearean quality.

      That, is what politicians don't get about programming. They don't understand it, so they want to dismiss it as something trivial.

      --
      Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
    2. Re:Give me a break by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      Next you're going to tell me that a politician in a hard hat doesn't actually know how to run that brand new gas power plant.

      Unpossible!

    3. Re:Give me a break by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I really hate it, when politicians pop up, write a "Hello World!" one liner, and then claim that they can code.

      Who has claimed that? Obama certainly didn't claim that -- the press release said he was "the first president to write a line of code." There's no claim that he became an expert or fluent -- he just participated in doing something that many people of his generation have never done. Because he thinks it's important, as he said:

      Part of what we're realizing is that we're starting too late when it comes to making sure that our young people are familiar with not just how to play a video game, but how to create a video game.

      And it wasn't David Cameron claiming he "learned to code" -- if anything it's the Microsoft press release that used that phrase. If you read the details, they say just that these politicians "had their first experience" of coding, not that they had somehow become an expert in an hour. If anything, the emphasis with Cameron was how much he learned from OTHER KIDS who had clearly invested more time in this stuff.

      They don't understand what programming is all about, and want to dismiss it as a simple skill that anyone (H1Bs) can do. Just because you can speak a few words of English as a foreign language, that doesn't mean that you can write works of Shakespearean quality.

      That, is what politicians don't get about programming. They don't understand it, so they want to dismiss it as something trivial.

      Actually, it is the exact opposite. If you actually read what they're saying, they are trying to emphasize how important these sorts of skills are, and they are doing these "stunts" NOT to demonstrate that "I too can learn to code in an hour," but rather something like, "Hey -- parents and grandparents out there who may never have done anything like this -- look, it's important, and it's a good idea to expose your kids to it early. I'm taking time to show how important skills like this are by trying a little myself, even though I haven't done it before."

      Now -- you can criticize various aspects of what they're doing. You could say that this is an ineffective way of getting their message across or that we don't need more kids familiar with coding (probably not true) or that there's a better way to demonstrate their commitment to this.

      But the whole point of these things is politicians trying to emphasize the IMPORTANCE of coding to our society today -- even if older generations don't "get it." They're not "dismiss[ing] it as something trivial" -- they're trying to encourage kids and parents to take the time to try it. As the Microsoft story about Cameron ends:

      the hope is that the Minecraft Hour of Code tutorial will have sparked an interest that lasts a lifetime.

      It probably won't for the vast majority of kids, but it might create an interest in some. Maybe you have some better ideas about how to encourage this. But I don't think you can accuse the politicians here of claiming either (1) that they became experts in an hour or (2) that they are trying to dismiss these skills as overly simple. If anything, they are trying to point out how we need to get kids interested early because it is a HARD and IMPORTANT skill that can take a long time to learn.

  5. He can't write math code by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    because he only knows division. His code can't be debugged, because every function has a race condition. He can't write C++ because only the protected classes matter. And none of the classes are allowed to be friends. And he wants to penalize inheritance.

  6. Not real by ITRambo · · Score: 2

    Learning to code meaningfully in an hour would be like learning calculus in an hour. It's not gonna happen. Stop with the gimmicks. Obama and Cameron can't code.

  7. Re:Mostly sure by orpheus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As a physician, I can tell you that every US medical student I've seen had to do/learn all the basic proctology tasks/diagnoses, and residents must learn the entire general range of proctology tasks/diagnoses. While most schools don't let a student do, say, full hands-on supervised colonoscopies for liability/inexperience/billing reasons, their residency will expect them to. A proctologist (as you term a board certified internist, with further training leading to a board subspecialty as a gastroenterologist) is an expert, there are no "proctology interns".

    I say this as someone who feels US medical care suffers from our excessive (sub)specialization, at the expense of trained generalists.

    As abusive as I feel the med school/residency system is, this is one part I agree with: any physician SHOULD have a thorough grounding.

    --

    If you can go to bed, knowing you did a valuable thing today, you're very lucky. If you can't... it's not bedtime

  8. And? by jandersen · · Score: 3

    Anybody who is moderately intelligent and understands the idea of doing one thing after another is able to learn how to carry out the basics of coding. I think most of my generation learned to write code by picking up whichever manual was at hand, reading it and then try to work out how to solve some small problem; it took me an afternoon to get started, and I can't imagine it would take anybody else longer, really. What is missing is the word 'well'; any idiot can learn to string instructions together, as I thought when I heard about Cameron learning it, but doing it well is another matter altogether.

    It falls in three phases, I think:

    1: Learning that coding consists of writing simple instructions and thinking "Oh, it that all it is?"
    2: Learning a bit more and realising that writing a good program for a substantial project is actually hard
    3: Building up years of experience and eventually becoming good

    Regrettably, a lot of people never progress past 1; and unfortunately a lot of them are managers, who then think that they are equipped to make decisions about the subject.

    1. Re:And? by NostalgiaForInfinity · · Score: 3, Funny

      2: Learning a bit more and realising that writing a good program for a substantial project is actually hard

      He hasn't even figured that out for law or government; he thinks he just decrees things and then they magically happen. When his code doesn't do what he wants, he probably complains that the CPU found "loopholes" in the instruction stream.

  9. Re:Presidential Administrations Care About Percept by Goaway · · Score: 2

    Your president is ridiculously powerful compared to those of most other western democracies.

  10. That other forgotten coding language... by nightcats · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I have spent roughly a third of my life these past 2 decades or so among folks who code professionally, but there is one language that seems to have been avoided or repressed in the rush toward a society of coders. Paradoxically or not, I have found that those who really understand computer languages are often the ones who most value this other, rather moribund language:

    True story from about a decade ago: I was sitting around a lunchroom table with a group of Indian tech workers. A new person had just arrived from our company’s office in Chennai, India, and he was getting acquainted with the “onshore” staff. Their way of breaking the ice was to go around the table, each man telling his name, position, and language(s). The web developer would introduce himself and say, ” I am Anand, I specialize in XML, javascript, CSS” The systems administrator would then chime in with something like “Ravi, I work in UNIX, Powershell, Perl” And so on it went, around the table, six or eight guys with varying skills and responsibilities. Finally it was my turn. I smiled and said, “I’m Brian Donohue, I work in the QA area and I also do some technical writing, and my language isoh damn itEnglish?”

    --
    Development is programmable; Discovery is not programmable. (Fuller)