Learn the basics of coding with a needle and thread (2018) | Hacker News Reader

Learn the basics of coding with a needle and thread (2018)

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50 pointsdanboarder12 comments

So to demonstrate how a 'computer' works, you make your employees participate in a 'creative exercise' with vague instructions and non-deterministic results, thus proving you shouldn't be frustrated with the 'dumb box full of opinions'?

I kind of get it, but there are much simpler and less performative ways of illustrating the concept. Probably better suited to a low-code metaphor, though.

> a member of the studio comes up with a creative activity to get us out of our heads and thinking more playfully.

It wasn’t about finding the simplest or best way. It was freedom to be playful.

Freedom to not be driven by criticism or optimisation. Freedom to have an idea, ask people to join you in playing, and enjoy seeing what emerges.

It happened that what emerged from this play session was a way to think about programming.

I think it was a wonderfully creative, collaborative and joyful idea. I loved reading about this space for designers to explore and try ideas without worrying if someone would say ‘this could be better’.

Designing and brainstorming needs openness and freedom to experiment. I feel happy that there’s spaces in the world where this is encouraged.

I think it's better as a demonstration of the difficulty of creating a comprehensive specification.

For that purpose, it's kind of like the thing that I've seen some computer science teachers do, where they ask students to tell them how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The teacher then tries to follow the instructions as literally as possible, without making any common-sense assumptions, usually with comical results. (For example, the teacher won't open the jars unless the student's instructions specifically said to do so.)

I think there's a lot of potential value in appreciating how informal the instructions we usually give other people are, and how much additional work and concentration it will take to fully formalize a set of instructions.

And become a tailor.

Best coders I know never really had to learn to code.

They got exposed to a computer at the neighbours' place, at parent's work or some such, and, somewhat bored with Prince of Persia or Golden Axe, found QBasic or Sinclair built-in basic.

There, hooked for life.

Attempting to compete are boot camp graduates and they don't have a chance.

Not sure I agree with you, at the same time what you described was more-or-less my initiation into programming when I was about 9-10.

Well, confirm or disprove this by asking around in your programming circle.

I'd go as far as to assert it's an early manifestation of the 'disease' rather than a trigger event. You're either in the few percent (at best) capable of proficient coding or you're not. In the latter case you didn't even bother looking for things in the file system or Qbasic wasn't attractive in the slightest.

Study and practice for 20 years beats a 3 month training camp?

Really?

Propensity beats desire for money, regardless of time spent.

This reminds me of this video[1] used to illustrate what coding is like for a young audience. In the video a father follows instructions written by his two kids about how to make a peanut butter sandwich, and follows each instruction literally. I think it shows well how computers are "dumb machines" and you need to give them very unambiguous instructions (i.e. code).

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct-lOOUqmyY

Just follow a cooking recipe.

A cooking recipe has input (ingredients), a procedure consisting a sequence of steps that transforms the input into the output, and the output.

Now you just need an editor: https://craft-of-emacs.kebab-ca.se/chapters/emacs-lisp-devel...

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