Hacker News Reader

effbotton EA CEO John Riccitiello Steps Down

That's a nice theory but EA's stock has been stagnant since 2009... smart investors really don't care about EA (or any other gaming company for that matter).

effbotton Everyone should get the opportunity to program, but school is a waste of time

This is a reoccurring theme on HN and in the programming subculture in general: rowdy kid drops out of school, gets written off by well-meaning adults, learns to program, goes on to start a highly successful tech business, and then writes a blog post railing against the school system.

While I totally agree that the schooling system is outdated and primarily a way to socialize children, what programmers tend to forget is that we have a very special profession that has both low barriers of entry and high pay. Literally anyone who has access to a computer can learn to program. This is not the case in most professions! While aspiring programmers can tinker around with Linux in their spare time, an aspiring doctor can't tinker with a cadaver without being in school. As programmers we are extremely lucky that all the tools we could ever need are free and on the web.