Reply to post: Re: So fix it!

Your kids' chances of becoming programmers? ZERO

Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward

Re: So fix it!

""Leaving out people with actual mental damage of some sort or another, everyone's pretty well on a par at birth."

Not true. Just...not true. The evidence overwhelmingly supports the 'nature' over 'nurture' argument. It has done for the last 24 years."

I'm just going by what I see in the real world. Maybe your evidence should too.

""Being really good at something is mostly a matter of doing it, and that's mostly a matter of motivation. Which is why you can, in fact, teach it."

You state this like a truth, but it's bullshit. Do you think someone can wake up one morning and say, "I'm going to write a number one hit single, or paint a masterpiece." Do you think the only thing that stands in their way is 'motivation'? "

Yes. Totally. If someone wants to paint a masterpiece all they have to do is devote 10-20 years to mastering the technical skills and thinking - really thinking - about what it is they want to say. I don't think it's any shock to realize that most people are not in fact motivated to do that. But it is theoretically doable. Ask any artist.

There is a huge opportunity cost, of course, but that's not a question of ability either.

The same applied to programming, mathematics, athletics, or almost any human activity you can name. Pretty well anyone can be extremely adept in any field they really want; being the best is a bit harder, of course ;)

""Art" is the act of connecting "the sublime" with "the mundane" in an understandable format. Please present me with an infallible approach to this, and I will be a very happy man."

I hope you are happy now, as the above is indeed infallible - although as I said, it is not the road to success in the art world, which is a different set of skills from merely being a good artist.

Come back in 10 years and let us know how you are getting on.

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