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$PATH is complicated and scary for most beginners, just as math can be scary for many kids, especially if they don't have a good teacher. Do we say we don't want kids learning math? No, we need to be better teachers. There are so many people with great ambitions and ideas who just need good guidance. Let's help them, not dismiss them.

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>Do we say we don't want kids learning math?

No, but I also don't want them being paid for their efforts to prove the Riemann hypothesis using only an abacus.

>we need to be better teachers

According to google there are about 1,040,000 results for 'what is "$PATH"?'. I feel like one or more of those is probably a pretty good resource.

I’m a programmer but I still to Google how to edit the PATH in Windows. This is not a matter of teaching, it’s a matter of laziness. Open Google and figure it out. This is not math. You don’t need to understand why. You follow the tutorial and go on with your life. You’ll understand why PATH matters when you’ll need to. And before you reply with: then why not abstracting this stuff? That’s because most technical people don’t mind, and they know that defaults don’t always apply. Just like accounting software doesn’t explain every single acronym. It targets a different audience.

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