The pain of the programmer

　　Father is a software engineer, so when I was very young teach me to write code, the is one of the best mentors I've ever met. Recently he and my mother have opened an organic farm, very active advocate sustainable life, to community activities also very keen to participate in .

These two days code.org launched a rather ambitious "together to learn code" activities, some celebrities to do endorsement. My father's comments are interesting, and his views reflect the ideas of many who are not enthusiastic about nonprofit software engineering or hacking:

For the past 35 years, I have been writing code in several languages fluently. In fact, for most people, programming is easier than learning to speak, communicate, read, collaborate, or master basic math skills. The real challenge, in fact, is farming, the need for more extensive support and continuous learning. To grow a good field, you have to communicate with the real world, which is still largely ambiguous, and the good farming will fundamentally affect the lives of all the people on this planet.

Why are programmers so complacent in their own spiritual world that they can enjoy such status and wealth, and the farmers who are dealing with the most important part of society and the biosphere are so despised? "Everyone should learn code (or learn to dance and sing)," he said. But more importantly, everyone should learn how to get along with the nature, understand the most basic food, water and where to rest.

The ability to program does not bring anything to the developer, programming is simply a tool to help you simplify the problem, so you can solve it more efficiently. It is the ability of a programmer who really makes the physical fetus to incarnate as a part of the software world that they clearly define and present problems in the abstract world. Programming at best is the hammer in the hands of the builder or the scalpel in the surgeon's hand. Yes, you need to know how to use it, but it's more important to know what to do with it.

Even if you have superhuman programming ability will not let you become the god of software and then a night of wealth, the world has too many intelligent excellent programmers have just earned enough milk powder money. Can be rich depends on what you want to solve the problem, such as Facebook, Google, such as the solution to improve the advertising effect of the nature is able to make money, and then do high-frequency trading algorithm, as well as to do some VC and other investors to make more money, not one of them enumerated.

What code.org really preaches is imparting the inner art of programming to more people. Indeed, it takes a bunch of people who have made a fortune using the strategy, but remember that advertising is just advertising, and that the tactic of "just doing this and you can make a fortune buying a mansion to marry a beautiful wife" has been proven countless times in demography. What Code.org really wants to do is teach children how to look at analytic issues, how to present them to help them understand what they want to solve, and give them a new tool to help them express and communicate problems.