Ask HN: If everyone could program, would you feel less self-worth? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: If everyone could program, would you feel less self-worth?

7 pointsamichail9 comments

It's easy to imagine a world where programming is a required skill just as reading is.

Would you want to live in such a world?

No, I would not want to live in such a world, but it has nothing to do with self-worth. I don't want programming to be a required skill for the same reason I don't want chemical engineering to be a required skill: most people don't need it. Most people need reading. Most people need math (despite the fact that it IS a required skill yet almost no one can actually do it). Most people need composition skills. Hence, the three R's (that would be reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic for those who aren't familiar with the phrase). Most people can also benefit from a basic understanding of history and science.

Programming and chemical engineering though? I see no reason for everyone to learn those. Computer usage, yes. Programming, not so much.

even in a world where reading is a required skill, there are many people who can't, many people who are bad at it, and many people who are professionally good at it.

I was thinking the exact same thing, but for writing. Well said.

Programming is not like reading, it is more like solving puzzles.

Everybody can learn how to program at some level. But few really enjoy it and even fewer will feel satisfaction at squashing some obscure bug. It is closely related to having patience and to tinker with stuff.

I'd be more than happy to have the rest of the world program at some high level but I find it very hard to imagine a world where it is required to solve puzzles.

Just like you can't make the scientific method a requirement for life you can't do that with programming either. It works, and well, but not everybody will be able to even if you mandate it.

Compare it with mandating everybody to be able to play the violin tomorrow, and what effect that would have on the self-worth of the violinists today...

I would suggest that writing:coding::reading:computer-use. Arguably, we already have an appropriate term in "computer literacy."

That is, I agree (assuming "coding" is equivalent to "customization" or, perhaps, even "confinguration") that we're rapidly approaching computer literacy as a required required skill, if we aren't there already.

All that said, I disagree that it's easy to imagine a world where programming is a required skill, nor even that programming is a skill. Rather, it is a combination of talent and skills.

Programmer:computers::novelist:books::reporter:periodical.

All that said, even if everyone could program, that wouldn't make them all equally successful, so my self-worth would not be affected. Besides, I consider myself a sysadmin, not a programmer.

If you expand programming to its most basic definition, "customizing the behavior of a computer", then we are nearly there already. People can make computers do much of what they want (view TV shows, find interesting things to read, play music, write journals, buy things, etc.) without using an actual programming language.

Reading isn't as universal as you'd think. Arguably, the ability to read in one language is a different skill than reading in another, just as reading at a 1st grade level is different than being able to read the engineering manuals of the space shuttle. At some point, there are limitations to what a person can do, but within their limits they can do many great things. I think the same will remain true of computer use.

I would feel enormously pleased, because it would mean that we had finally lowered the barrier of entry for programming to a point where people with little or no specialist training could create useful programs that were largely correct and bug-free, presumably with a minimal commitment of time deemed reasonable by the average person.

I think it would basically mean that we had "solved programming", which would be something of an achievement.

As for me, there would still need to be people who figured out how to keep programming theory ahead of the current state-of-the-art in terms of practice, so I reckon I'd at least have a shot at still having a job.

It would probably be better. It wouldn't hurt any of our egos, because only a few people would be able to program well, just as, despite near universal literacy, only a few people can write well. But people would at least give us precise bug reports when things broke.

Sure because there are always different levels of skill and desire.

My self-worth is dependent on how well I think I solved a given problem, not the fact that there are others who could solve it also.

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