As a result the internet age has seen an exponential increase in the complexity of programming, as well as its exclusivity.
This is precisely false. The internet age has seen decreases in the complexity and exclusivity of programming, compared to what existed before. Millions of people are programming computers in some capacity or another. In fact this is a large part of the reason why there is no “American Programmers Association” - the barrier to entry is so low, that there’s no chance for such a cartel to form. You don’t need anyone’s permission to start programming, just access to some kind of computer. And computers are cheaper and more widely available now than they ever have been.
No amount of coaching and cheerleading is going to make most people enjoy spending their lives playing Dungeons & Dragons and Rubik’s Cube. Why is making the technology itself more humane off the agenda?
This is true, I think, but I don’t think this article makes a good case that this requirement of abstract mathematical thinking is incidental to programming, rather than an inherent requirement of the discipline. Even spreadsheets, I would argue, require some amount of abstract mathematical thinking to make use of, which is why not everyone is an accountant - but accounting is less sexy than programming, so no one thinks that’s a problem.
I’m disappointed to read the negative comments on TFA complaining that the author has “merely” identified a problem and called on us to fix it, without also implementing the solution. That is an established pattern, a revolution has four classes of actor:
theoreticians
propagandists
agitators
organisers
Identifying a problem is a necessary prerequisite to popularising the solution, but all four steps do not need to be partaken by the same person. RMS wrote the GNU Manifesto, but did not write all of GNU. Martin Luther wrote the ninety-five theses, but did not undertake all of protestant reform. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote the Communist Manifesto but did not lead a revolution in Russia or China. The Agile Manifesto signatories wrote the manifesto for agile software development but did not all personally tell your team lead to transform your development processes.
Understandably, there are people who do not react well to theory, and who need the other three activities to be completed before they can see their role in the change. My disappointment is that the noise caused by so many people saying “you have not told me what to do” drowns out the few asking themselves “what is to be done?”
I read through and concluded that the author says nothing. Cannot exactly identify the problem he raises up. And by observing the first lines, I think he’s an idiot.
That computing is so complex is not a fault of nerdy young 50 years old men. If nerdy 50 years young men had designed that stuff we’d be using Plan9 with Prolog and not have as many problems as now.
The current computing platforms are created by multiple-body companies and committees with commercial interests. They’ve provided all the great and nice specs such as COBOL, ALGOL, HDMI, USB, UEFI, XML and ACHI, just few to start the list with. All of the bullshit is the handwriting of the ignorant, not of those playing dungeons and dragons or solving rubik cubes.
This is precisely false. The internet age has seen decreases in the complexity and exclusivity of programming, compared to what existed before. Millions of people are programming computers in some capacity or another. In fact this is a large part of the reason why there is no “American Programmers Association” - the barrier to entry is so low, that there’s no chance for such a cartel to form. You don’t need anyone’s permission to start programming, just access to some kind of computer. And computers are cheaper and more widely available now than they ever have been.
This is true, I think, but I don’t think this article makes a good case that this requirement of abstract mathematical thinking is incidental to programming, rather than an inherent requirement of the discipline. Even spreadsheets, I would argue, require some amount of abstract mathematical thinking to make use of, which is why not everyone is an accountant - but accounting is less sexy than programming, so no one thinks that’s a problem.
I’m disappointed to read the negative comments on TFA complaining that the author has “merely” identified a problem and called on us to fix it, without also implementing the solution. That is an established pattern, a revolution has four classes of actor:
Identifying a problem is a necessary prerequisite to popularising the solution, but all four steps do not need to be partaken by the same person. RMS wrote the GNU Manifesto, but did not write all of GNU. Martin Luther wrote the ninety-five theses, but did not undertake all of protestant reform. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote the Communist Manifesto but did not lead a revolution in Russia or China. The Agile Manifesto signatories wrote the manifesto for agile software development but did not all personally tell your team lead to transform your development processes.
Understandably, there are people who do not react well to theory, and who need the other three activities to be completed before they can see their role in the change. My disappointment is that the noise caused by so many people saying “you have not told me what to do” drowns out the few asking themselves “what is to be done?”
I read through and concluded that the author says nothing. Cannot exactly identify the problem he raises up. And by observing the first lines, I think he’s an idiot.
That computing is so complex is not a fault of nerdy young 50 years old men. If nerdy 50 years young men had designed that stuff we’d be using Plan9 with Prolog and not have as many problems as now.
The current computing platforms are created by multiple-body companies and committees with commercial interests. They’ve provided all the great and nice specs such as COBOL, ALGOL, HDMI, USB, UEFI, XML and ACHI, just few to start the list with. All of the bullshit is the handwriting of the ignorant, not of those playing dungeons and dragons or solving rubik cubes.