When it comes to useful skill and ability, Aretae reminds us, practice, practice, practice goes a long way — especially when the goal is competence, rather than winning one of a few select spots at the top of the hierarchy.
But then he mentions programming, and I can’t hold back:
When the question is can you write software?, the answer — for the vast majority of people — is no.
In fact, if the question is will you ever be able to write decent software?, the answer is no, never-ever.
We can easily test to see who has the potential to learn programming, and who doesn’t — the non-programmers for whom you might as well be teaching Chinese to a monkey.
I would go so far as to say that programming appears wholly unnatural for neurotypical humans — even sharp ones.
Enjoy the whole back-and-forth exchange.
Michael Hammer, the noted management consultant, argued that in order to develop the kind of thinking skills required for a senior executive one should pursue two kinds of education:
1) A difficult technical subject: computer science is specifically mentioned under this category
2) A traditional liberal-arts course of study
If Dr Hammer was right, and if it’s really true that a very high % of people cannot learn to program, then it’s automatically true that a very high % of people cannot learn to think, at least in the sense Hammer was talking about.
However, I believe that Dartmouth College, in the 1960s and 1970s, took advantage of its then-new timesharing system to require all undergraduates to learn to program.
Excellent point, David. In fact, I cited your piece on Hammer’s recommended education for business a few years ago.