Codecademy (YC S11) on Colbert Report
colbertnation.com
colbertnation.com
Its one of the detriments of living under a monarchy. But in case you can't give up your silly accents and move to America, watch clips from .... etc. "
To which I say ... "GOD SAVE OUR GRACIOUS QUEEN!"
Bill Bryson cancelled it seems.
http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1h5ed5/after_our_dad_d...
Don't get me wrong - I agree with you. But this is not a special case and in general I feel the same way everytime someone gets interviewed by him. But then I stop feeling bad because I know that they knew what they were getting themselves into :)
That's fine though. It still gives various people exposure, and I have looked into numerous authors, politicians, and musicians because what was seen beyond the comedy bits interested me.
It reminds me of my experiences talking about Rejection Therapy[1] on TV. With Dragons' Den, I was wound up tight as a clock and I think it had a lot to do with why I had my ass kicked. My appearance on the Jeff Probst Show went much smoother.
Again, it was a remarkably good interview, especially considering the nerdy subject matter.
i think he was a bit off base in calling everyone from all walks of life to learn to code.
coding is truly useful for already somewhat technical, detail-oriented people who can get more work done or get it done faster with code. it is certainly not for everyone to know how to do in practice, but an in-depth "Intro to How Computers/Internet Works" is a must for everyone.
The internet is NOT a series of tubes, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Series_of_tubes
"Ah, yes. The same way writing was for exceptionally dull monks. And yet, strangely, the world became a better place as more people learnt reading and writing.
I might be dull - I let my friends judge - but I'd like to make one point very clearly. Pretty much the entire world runs based on some code written somewhere. Anything of consequence is more and more computer-controlled. If you'd really want to have your kids ignorant, helplessly observing a small priest caste "perform magic", without any chance of changing the world, please, by all means, do leave programming to us weirdos." I read this here: https://plus.google.com/+RachelBlum/posts/WWiJtjeCoxj
i read a lot about discoveries in theoretical physics and even though i couldnt discern a gluon from a top quark in a Feynman diagram, i have very rough concept of what's involved without doing any math or solving formulas. the same applies to every technical subject on the planet. programming/IT is an extremely deep field that has no bottom, much like genetics, biology, etc.
more doctors and research Ph.Ds have a larger potential to change the world than additional programmers; putting coding on some pedestal is quite inappropriate. to me, biochemists perform the same "magic" as you speak of.
if you don't pursue coding out of deep interest for the art, you wont change the world either. you may write a basic web page or blog for yourself and hack together some VBA excel macros, but that's about it. i don't think anyone comes out of Codecademy ready to write the next Crysis game or a Google, FB or Amazon infrastructure.
And I don't think that learning to code is equivalent to working professionally as a programmer. The same way as learning how to read and write is different than being a writer or a poet, and yet no one argue about the importance of being literate.
And yes, even if you only know how to use VBA to summarize your research results, it'd still probably worth it.
And isn't a good amount of the internet infrastructure guarded by conduit? Literally making it a series of tubes...
With Ted Stephens, it's probably more accurate to say that it was one more reason to dislike someone who a lot of people already had a lot of reasons to dislike.
If nothing else, advocating for that is in his company's best interest.
Hypocrites.
I'm interested to hear what everyone thinks. Will Codecademy be able to "connect people learning on the site with opportunities that fit their skill sets?"
I'd ask if they had a blog, or a website they built, or a hobby they're working on. I'd prefer to see a candidate that's passionate about software - that turns on her computer when everyone else is sleeping because she heard about a new framework or language or service on Amazon that she wants to play with.
There are uninspired graduates of good computer science programs, and there are hidden superstars that taught themselves, with no idea how good they are.
Bottom line - experience and passion matter more than where they studied.
If you know how to spot a good programmer with a real interest in programming, what does it matter where he started?
Only people who don't know how to spot or attract a good programmer fall back to big school names, and years of experience and all the rest of the fake stuff.
Even if the work involves written or spoken output, if they clearly dominate the language and can express themselves fluently, I'd quickly move on to something more relevant, like talking shop, and their past work.