Cynicaladdict111 t1_j0d16s7 wrote on December 15, 2022 at 7:30 PM

lol why do we need more programmers? there already are enough people interested

lupius_mohnschein OP t1_j0d1zl7 wrote on December 15, 2022 at 7:35 PM

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/LongWavesThreeParadigms.jpg

Because we are currently at the beginning of the biggest revolution happening to human kind and because innovation in this century happens mainly in software. Therefore, programming is the skill of the 21. century and the more people learn it the better. I'm not necessarily speaking about actual hard programming but visual programming or low-code everybody could be useful for many people.

Cynicaladdict111 t1_j0d4io5 wrote on December 15, 2022 at 7:51 PM

sure but that means that we need more really good programmers, not millions more code monkeys. 99% of programmers are not innovating anything lol and if you make the barrier to entry even lower you get even more people who aren't innovating. I mean it's a fun idea (some people wrote brainfuck and temple os lmao) but completely useless

lupius_mohnschein OP t1_j0d7tb2 wrote on December 15, 2022 at 8:12 PM

You are right, there is no use in giving people random programming skill that they can't use anyways. BUT:

First, it could get more people interesting in programming in the first place (especially women, who are underrepresented) and more programmers mean more excellent programmers mean more innovation. I think we shouldn't kid ourself that all people who could be excellent programmers are become ones.

Secondly, it could bring coding in new areas, for example law firms, creative secotrs, etc. Instead of letting all the functionality be done by the programmer, it is given to the user for example with a domain specific language. Because they are the experts in their area and with some coding skills, they could probably also write simple algorithms to solve their problems faster.

TLDR. Innovation through reaching more excellent programmers. And by increasing the overall knowledge about programming/computers, more programming can be delegated to the user, which also leads to new innovation.

SomeoneSomewhere1984 t1_j0e4t73 wrote on December 15, 2022 at 11:53 PM

Women don't need programming to be gamified to learn it. No matter how much you gamify it, learning to do it well enough to be useful is still a lot of work.

lupius_mohnschein OP t1_j0fish1 wrote on December 16, 2022 at 6:56 AM

Right, I should clarify this: it's also about changing the way we think about programmers in pop culture. Currently that is: Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg, who does his thing. It would be great to have some different stories, in which women are included and which also depicts the daily experience of programmers more correctly: that it's about teamwork.

I'm not saying women need that. In the case of bringing women to learn coding it's more about breaking up existing believes how programmers look like, have role models in pop culture, etc.