What you're saying is true and I used to be optimistic about it like you, however I stopped believing that it is feasible for most adults after failing to teach family members the basics or junior colleagues to become better.
Maybe I've been a bad teacher, however the thing I noticed is this - yes, if you put enough effort, Ok, we can probably do anything, like learning to play the violin or do programming, except that's easier said than done. The effort required is actually enormous. Put in that equation real-world concerns, like a social life, a day job, raising children and so on and it becomes next to impossible.
For a child it is easier - he has the time available and that desert of despair mentioned can be actually fun. Because to a child, making the computer do stuff can feel like magic, whereas to an adult it feels like a chore to get somewhere, a chore that eats all of the available time.
Knowledge is accessible and that's great. The noise is also great though and one still has to filter, analyze, learn and work. The Internet is indeed disruptive, like you get access to books or to online courses from reputable universities without being there and without paying a single dime. But I still see this as helping children in impoverished nations, rather than adults in first world countries.
Note that I'm not discarding the possibility of adults actually making it over the learning curve. I'm sure there are people out there that have succeeded. But those are super-humans and I think they represent the exception.
There's also another thing that's starting to piss me off. Some of the problems we end up working on are extremely difficult, yet because we are idealists, we go around telling everybody that everybody can do it, probably out of sheer enthusiasm for the things we do, because we believe the world would be better and maybe because we want to share with others our passion. But you know what, some of the stuff we do can be really challenging, objectively speaking not everybody can do it and going around and saying that opens us up for abuse. And then we start complaining about agism or about companies fixing salaries and entering no poaching agreements. How stupid can we get? Oh, so you want more or better software developers? Capitalism works both ways, demand and supply is a bitch, so fucking pay up.
> . Some of the problems we end up working on are extremely difficult, yet because we are idealists, we go around telling everybody that everybody can do it, probably out of sheer enthusiasm for the things we do, because we believe the world would be better and maybe because we want to share with others our passion.
This right here is the money quote. This is why I am very wary of taking a position as a "developer" or "programmer", and not a consultant. Computer science is one of the most intellectually demanding professions in existence, yet a bunch of kids who are talented try to stunt and make it sound easy. It's like the world's greatest Neurosurgeon posting his surgeries on youtube and saying "anyone can learn, come to my bootcamp!".
Absolute nonsense. It probably has to do with them trying to signal competence for mate selection...If that's the case, I've got news for you boys, CS is never gonna get you laid. Money on the other hand, most definitely will. So focus on your boatloads of cash, not how "easy" CS or programming is, and leave the dignity of your profession untarnished.
Actually you can't ever learn to play a violin properly unless you have an ear for music. There is a threshold of minimal talent that you can't jump over just by practicing, you either can hear it or not. While there is no such obvious threshold for e.g. math or programming (for a person with an average IQ), I think we could talk about a kind of a threshold defined by the concentration and willingness to invest time and effort into the learning process. Theoretically anyone should be able to do it, but in reality not everyone is mentally capable of that, simple as that. Just like running a marathon or something, most of us will never be able to do it, although in theory it's simple: you just need to follow the proper training for long enough. Losing weight is also dead simple, just as quitting smoking or getting off drugs, but many can't do it. Learning is no different, it takes certain minimal level of power of will to be able to make it.
Most people could run in marathons successfully, unless they are sick or something. It's what the human body was built for. And if you are going to argue that playing the violin requires an ear for music, as if that's so uncommon, then I could also argue that programming skill depends highly of intelligence.
> Losing weight is also dead simple
No it isn't, because weight gain and loss highly depends on one's metabolism. Say that to a diabetic and you'll probably get punched.
> Losing weight is also dead simple, just as quitting smoking or getting off drugs, but many can't do it. Learning is no different, it takes certain minimal level of power of will to be able to make it.
You say that losing weight is dead simple, and that you need minimal level of will power to achieve it, but then you say that many people can't achieve it.
Maybe I've been a bad teacher, however the thing I noticed is this - yes, if you put enough effort, Ok, we can probably do anything, like learning to play the violin or do programming, except that's easier said than done. The effort required is actually enormous. Put in that equation real-world concerns, like a social life, a day job, raising children and so on and it becomes next to impossible.
For a child it is easier - he has the time available and that desert of despair mentioned can be actually fun. Because to a child, making the computer do stuff can feel like magic, whereas to an adult it feels like a chore to get somewhere, a chore that eats all of the available time.
Knowledge is accessible and that's great. The noise is also great though and one still has to filter, analyze, learn and work. The Internet is indeed disruptive, like you get access to books or to online courses from reputable universities without being there and without paying a single dime. But I still see this as helping children in impoverished nations, rather than adults in first world countries.
Note that I'm not discarding the possibility of adults actually making it over the learning curve. I'm sure there are people out there that have succeeded. But those are super-humans and I think they represent the exception.
There's also another thing that's starting to piss me off. Some of the problems we end up working on are extremely difficult, yet because we are idealists, we go around telling everybody that everybody can do it, probably out of sheer enthusiasm for the things we do, because we believe the world would be better and maybe because we want to share with others our passion. But you know what, some of the stuff we do can be really challenging, objectively speaking not everybody can do it and going around and saying that opens us up for abuse. And then we start complaining about agism or about companies fixing salaries and entering no poaching agreements. How stupid can we get? Oh, so you want more or better software developers? Capitalism works both ways, demand and supply is a bitch, so fucking pay up.