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handsomecode:

Dudes, Tyler didn’t even attend high school.  The only programming I’ve learned was when I finally got out of school.  I’d say our current educational system makes it harder to learn to program (i.e. solve problems with logic, reason, and research.) because a) grades aren’t motivating b) money is and c) most learning is from screwing around, playing, which is definitely not something schools encourage.

roybahat:

It might even be possible to do more than just learn to code – but also to become an elite coder – without necessarily going to college. We are in the early days of teaching code as a profession. Most academic training is focused on teaching students theory, not practice.  (One Ivy League computer science program only required one course where students actually write code.) Imagine if students who might not otherwise even attend college could become elite coders.

Since my name was mentioned, I’m gonna break away from the topic of this article and go on a tangent about this sudden trend in people thinking they’re gonna learn to code in 2012.

The reason I learned to code has nothing to do with dropping out of school. I dropped out of school and learned to code for the same single reason. I have this uncontrollable desire to know how things work and when I pondered the questions “how does the education work?” and “how do computers work?” I made assumptions about them.

Those assumptions were something like, school is a big fucking waste of time for me, and computers are fucking awesome. I felt music was awesome too and thankfully I put effort into both or I’d be broke as shit.

The asshole in me believes, if you have ever owned a computer and you still don’t know how to code you probably never will. You might understand the basics, or even create a thing or two. But I doubt you’re gonna be good at it, because what makes a good coder, is the guy who looked at a screen for two seconds and had to know what the hell was making this magic happen.

I’m generally a pessimist when it comes to standard education or even ridiculous courses hosted by coders with embarrassing cult beliefs. Anything short of figuring out how you as an individual approach and solve problems is a lazy short cut that will cost you in the end.