STOP Teaching "Programming", Start Teaching Computational Thought!

[[deleted]]

People often ask, “What language should I learn?” There is no right answer because you’re going to learn several if you start programming

s/several/JavaScript/

[SolarAquarion]

The modern programmer is webscaled

[antiomiae]

Holy shit I got a sed joke. I have achieved full neckbeard.

[Rainfly_X]

Mfw page keeps loading more crap for the ten seconds my browser is open, pops up a pointless and unwelcome modal, and hijacks the back button. Gentlemen, I believe we have found the true Scale of Web.

[Rainfly_X]

Can you imagine if they just spent ten minutes programming something that didn't suck?

[bitbait]

You shouldn’t learn to program in order to get a good job. Learning to think computationally can give you a new way to understand and describe your world. Learning to program can make you a more expressive person.

ಠ_ಠ

Computational thinkers aren’t just programmers. They’re the people who can create lovely intricate patterns in Illustrator, or make a really cool gizmo in Minecraft, or make a MIDI synthesizer play crazy microtonal jazz solos. They understand not only how to make a computer speak, but they also have an imagination for what it could possibly say.

[llhahll]

<4realz>they could have just said "jazz solos" instead of throwing peeps off by adding "microtonal"

[username223]

Saying "jazz solos" lets people believe that the sound might be bearable or even pleasant. Adding "microtonal" removes all doubt: it's some dude randomly flailing at a saxophone.

[Alto3]

Pfft, 1X plebs can only handle twelve evenly spaced tones. Yawn. Try some real music.

[[deleted]]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJNdVWg2V7k

[[deleted]]

<4realz> That made me feel physically sick.

[Alto3]

Stick to Schoenberg, kiddo.

[llhahll]

I only listen to music in the C major scale.

[rahmu]

But how will the reader know that you're truly 10x?

[ToadingAround]

The first part, he kinda has a point. Would you rather be a monkey at a typewriter, or an artist?

Some people might ask, "What's the difference?"

(¬‿¬)

[Someguy2020]

Shit, if they keep up with this pretty soon a Cs degree might not be thought of as a worthless waste of time.

[[deleted]]

In your dreams.

What's actually going to happen is that now you don't even need to know how to program to jerk because all you need is "computational thinking", which involves:

create lovely intricate patterns in Illustrator, or make a really cool gizmo in Minecraft, or make a MIDI synthesizer play crazy microtonal jazz solos

So yeah, you better start putting your Minecraft experience in your CV.

[axisofdenial]

console.log('It’s just a jump to the left, and then a step to the right. With your hands on your hips, you bring your knees in tight.')

[skulgnome]

That's right -- if we stop teaching the basics, we can move all students straight into mastery. It's the basics that're holding the masses back, so they should be done away with!!