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Learning How to Code Is A Waste Of Time (forbes.com)

4 points by tarabrown ↗ HN
Sure, it's super awesome that there are a ton more resources out there for people to learn to code, but without the fundamentals I'm not sure what's going to happen.

Codecademy has decided for 300k people they should learn JavaScript because they can build a game with it. People are heading into a black box without rhyme or reason as to what they are getting themselves into.

I don't see how this is any better than picking up a Dummies book. Let's add some more context to these "how to code" sites so that people don't get discouraged 1/4 of the way into learning.

5 comments

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anothermachine
Interesting. This linkbait* article has 3 points and is frontpaged. The next-lowest-score frontpage article at the moment is 14pts.

* The second paragraph contradicts the headline: "The goal ‘learn how to code’ is a waste of your time. Don’t get me wrong, I applaud anyone that wants to learn something new. "

llambda
> The next-lowest-score frontpage article at the moment is 14pts.

Ranking is in part based on the time since the submission was made fwiw.

reverend
TIL "linkbait". Indeed very fitting description many submissions lately.
GiraffeNecktie
Learning what you don't like to do isn't nearly as useful as learning what you DO you like to do, but I wouldn't call it a waste of time.
ldayley
tl;dr

Learning to Code is a noble and worthwhile thing to do. But don't do it just to do it, or do it at the expense or something that might be more practical for you personally.

I can relate to this, but I'm sharpening my programming skills anyway.