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Comment by tomcam | Hacker News Reader

I’m going to give you an answer that I hope gets debunked.

It seems to me that if she can’t install Python then she may not in general be a good candidate.

In my experience a whole lot of programming jobs involves things not directly linked to programming, such as installing languages, deploying projects, dealing with internal tools, and so on. If you lack the wherewithal to install and run python after reading or watching a few tutorials, you may not be cut out for the job.

I say this as a guy who learns very very slowly and who has to work extra hard to get the basics.

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I don't know if this is debunking you, but you've put words in OP's mouth. They didn't say that "she can't install Python", or anything remotely like that.

They said, the 72 year old woman is starting from zero. She may not have done anything at all yet (perhaps for lack of knowledge on where to start).

It is highly likely that she just thinks she wants to code, and will give up during the first step into the thicket of incomprehensibility involved in starting from zero. But the same exact thing could be said about a 12 year old starting out, and absolutely nobody would suggest that the 12 year old should be discouraged from trying. Rather, most everyone would cheer on the 12 year old and throw resources at them. (Pretty much the same ones people have already suggested here, so I won't add more.)

Bit of a pet peeve to me -- the older people get, the faster people will jump to say that they shouldn't do something new. Not that you were necessarily saying that, but it happens quite often.

You’re damn right. My answer was completely out of line. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31358958

> Bit of a pet peeve to me -- the older people get, the faster people will jump to say that they shouldn't do something new. Not that you were necessarily saying that, but it happens quite often.

I am also old and I am always trying things that take me out of my comfort zone. My answer was specifically meant for someone who wanted to be on track to work as a programming professional (which was nowhere near what OP mentioned). Age had nothing to do with my answer, by the way.

She's not trying to turn this into a career. She's just curious to understand and potentially interested in picking up a new hobby.

My dad (also 72) has been learning to play guitar lately. He's not very good, and his progress is slow, but he's thoroughly enjoying it.

> She's not trying to turn this into a career. She's just curious to understand and potentially interested in picking up a new hobby.

In that case I was completely out of line. I think things like Codea or Codecademy would be fantastic.

I hope people debunk the hell out of this.

I was an extremely good student who had all kinds of accolades but I'm also seriously handicapped. I've wanted to learn how to code for more than a decade and I've had people tell me I'm simply not really interested (because I'm not succeeding).

That's not true.

I don't know what piece I'm missing to get traction on the learning process, but I seriously want to learn.

I will add that at age 72, if she just uses it as a time filler and "never accomplishes anything," it's her time to fill as she sees fit. Why should anyone care if she studies and studies and never produces a single thing?

> I hope people debunk the hell out of this.

They did! I was way off: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31358958

Furthermore I think casual coding would be a fantastic way to spend some extra time.

> I will add that at age 72, if she just uses it as a time filler and "never accomplishes anything," it's her time to fill as she sees fit. Why should anyone care if she studies and studies and never produces a single thing?

You are completely right of course. I made up out of whole cloth the idea that she might be trying to do this professionally.

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