Feux Follets says

Over the past five years, the idea that computer programming – or “coding” – is the key to the future for both children and adults alike has become received wisdom in the United States.

Then you know that idea is played out.

Feux Follets says

However, the American history of these education initiatives shows that their primary beneficiaries aren’t necessarily students or workers, but rather the influential tech companies that promote the programs in the first place. The current campaign to teach American kids to code may be the latest example of tech companies using concerns about education to achieve their own goals. This raises some important questions about who stands to gain the most from the recent computer science push.

Just follow the money.

anon_b9053 says

no point. outsourcing has killed stem, particularly programming. it's already too late.

If you work for a shop that demands your primary audience for the code you write be the Lazy Indians at Amazon AWS servers where your code must have test projects and be managed code. SO much so it actually gets in the way of the effectiveness of your code being a benefit to the enterprise and the data model you are writing for. Then you're just creating Managed code for an Indian to take over. Your actual software will suck balls and not be efficient but man oh man can it pass those Test projects and make sure you're passing in correct data types.
Any real meaningful business logic cant be managed code and will break the tests.
Those Indians depend on you and your code sucking Balls, and they stay in high esteem of the Company execs.

AI is on the way?
Sorry,you will no longer be needed.
The fast food hamburger joint has an opening
at the fry station.
That's all you are really qualified for.
You will probably burn yourself so you can get workmans comp/sick pay.

HEYYOU says

AI is on the way?

AI is already here and has been here.
AI is great to spot defects in a production line in less than 1,000th of a millisecond and burst air to blow them out of the production line.
AI is great for taking a thumbnail image and blow it up to a 300dpi 1200 X 1200 pixle image without losing clarity.
AI is not Artificial Cognition.
AI will never have organic conversation with humans, make more robots based on original designs, be in complex mobile structures capable of lasting longer than a smart phone, what 2 years tops!

Feux Follets says

the learn-to-code craze

Probably a sure sign that programming skills are about to become useless.

And my final thought on AI and the Robot revolution.
This time last year Amazon was featuring these crazy box robots that criss crossed at high speed across the Amazon warehouse floor fulfilling orders, pushing boxed in front of them.

Just last week, it was reported Amazon is working people to death to keep up with demand. Of course they didn't tell us in the story, but that has to be because all of those robots they so proudly displayed last year are already worn out from the rigorous abuse. They can't afford to retool a robot army every 6 months or a year even.

Don't believe me, the Tenpounder is full of shit is he?

This was December of last year, a video of Amazon touting the end all robot revolution.


Now this was May of this year Amazon offering a 250K reward for a Robot design durable enough to last more than a week.
Last year they also touted the criss crossing conveyor belts used in conjunction with those crawler robots for fulfillment.
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/10/amazon-robots-warehouse.html

For kids to learn programming don't they need to learn math first? So much for public school programmers...

no point. outsourcing has killed stem, particularly programming. it's already too late.

AI is not on the way.

Here's the best proof:

Call customer service at a bank or somewhere with the IVR and see how "SMART" it is.

"Card decline."
"Sorry, I didn't understand you. Please rep---"
"Declined Card."
"I'm sorry, I don't undertand."
"Please repeat your entry. Say something like 'check balance, find a payment...'"

This tech has been around for more than two decades now, and it still sucks balls.

What a real McDonalds without humans would be like:

"I said I wanted no pickels"

"Extra pickles."

"No pickles! OPERATOR! AGENT!!!"

"Thanks for coming by McDonalds Automatic Cashier System - MACS. Please hold while we connect you to a customer service representative. The estimated hold time for your Bic Mac Meal Question is FOURTEEN minutes and THIRTY TWO seconds."

"But I only have 10 minutes left on my break."

"Doo-be-doop doo-be-doop doo doo, At McDonalds, we value our customers and thank you for holding...."

10 years ago the BLS was advertising that Financial Advisor was the growth industry of the future.

Somebody didn't tell those Econ Majors that Stockbrokers or Whole Life Salespeople ("Financial Advisors") have churn at something like 95%.

The teachers pushing this coding stuff don't know how to code themselves. It makes their classroom sound special

The 14 most popular programming languages, according to a study of 100,000 developers.

#1: Javascript: Despite having similar names, Javascript isn't actually related to Java. It allows developers to build interactive elements on websites, making it one of the most ubiquitous languages on the web, and the most popular in the world.

#2: HTML: Although it technically isn't a programming language — it's a "markup language" — HTML is the basis for the structure of every single website.

#3: Cascading Style Sheets, or CSS, is the programming language that's widely used to design websites and browser-based apps.

#4: SQL, pronounced "sequel," stands for Structured Query Language. It lets you deal with large amounts of data by accessing and managing databases. Most of the time, it's used in conjunction another language, like PHP.

#5: Java: Java was originally invented by Sun Microsystems in 1991 as a programming language for interactive television systems. Since purchasing Sun, Oracle has turned Java into a powerhouse. The programming language is the most common way to build Android apps.

#6: Bash/Shell: Shell isn't exactly a programming language. Instead, a shell script instructs an operating system to automatically run a pre-designed list of commands. For instance, a shell script might have an operating system convert every ".bmp" file to a ".jpg" whenever it's run.

#7: Python: Python dates back to 1989 and is loved by its fans for its highly readable code. Many programmers believe it's the easiest language to get started with.

#8: C#: This language, pronounced "C-Sharp," was developed by Microsoft. It's a rival to the even more popular Java and largely used by business software developers.

#9: PHP is used for websites and apps that are heavy on data. It even powers WordPress and Facebook. But many programmers hate PHP with a passion. "PHP isn't so much a language as a random collection of arbitrary stuff, a virtual explosion at the keyword and function factory," Stack Overflow founder Jeff Atwood once wrote.

#10: C++ is an offshoot of the C programming language. It was originally created in 1983, and can be found in everything from desktop web apps to server infrastructure.

#11: C, one of the oldest programming languages still in common use, was created in the early 1970s. In 1978, the language's legendary and still widely read manual, "The C Programming Language," was published for the first time.

#12: Typescript is relatively young by programming language standards, created by Microsoft in 2012. It's closely related to the mega-popular JavaScript and designed to run big applications.

#13: Ruby has won lots of acclaim for being easy to read and write. Also popular is Rails, an add-on framework for Ruby that makes it simple to build web apps. The language's official motto is "A programmer's best friend."

#14: Swift was released by Apple 2014, touted as a better and easier way to build software. Swift has become trendy; Lyft, among others, used it to make its iPhone app.

http://www.businessinsider.com/14-most-popular-programming-languages-stack-overflow-developer-survey-2018-4

I’d rather American kids learn to code and take the tech jobs than we have to import Chindians to do that work.

MAGA

On the flip side of the coin, if one is already an experienced business analyst in the white collar workforce, it's not a bad idea to know some coding, to solve problems w/o needing to get IT involved at every turn.

Tenpoundbass says

HEYYOU says

AI is on the way?

AI is already here and has been here.
AI is great to spot defects in a production line in less than 1,000th of a millisecond and burst air to blow them out of the production line.
AI is great for taking a thumbnail image and blow it up to a 300dpi 1200 X 1200 pixle image without losing clarity.
AI is not Artificial Cognition.
AI will never have organic conversation with humans, make more robots based on original designs, be in complex mobile structures capable of lasting longer than a smart phone, what 2 years tops!

Why would AI converse with a lesser species?

To be precise: AI is on the way to take your? job.
Thought you might have ciphered that.
Get that fry station job now & maybe you can get an early promotion to asst. night manager. ;-)

Time to do more research to see how many jobs have been lost to new technology in the last 200 years.
I know, I know, advances have been good? for society until you lose your job & fall by the wayside.
Not everybody does, but I think 2 or 3 have. How many who want to work but can't because of constantly changing qualifications?
Sitting at a desk in a controlled environment is such a great job,can someone write code to clean up the global environment,start with all the pollution created by high tech, a code to repair the infrastructure without raising taxes & a code to stop people from focusing on technology without looking at all the consequences.
Shoot! I knew you weren't that smart.
What's happened to all one's old tech gadgets? No problem! Outta sight,outta mind. Trash doesn't exist.

I'm amazed to see how some are so narrowly focused on their new office sprinkler system when everything outside is on fire.
Always excited to see the latest consequences!

Rin says

to solve problems w/o needing to get IT involved at every turn.

You are assuming that in most big corps IT knows how to code.

Can someone write a code to speed up the firing of my synapses?

anotheraccount says

Rin says

to solve problems w/o needing to get IT involved at every turn.

You are assuming that in most big corps IT knows how to code.

And yet, another reason for a business analyst to learn some coding skills.

I think it's safe to say that those who're presently in the white collar world, probably do need to learn some level of coding, to help expedite their work.

For newcomers, like the kids in the 6th grade, that ship has already sailed w/ the prior generation.

Rin says

I think it's safe to say that those who're presently in the white collar world, probably do need to learn some level of coding, to help expedite their work.

Most places I worked that dealt with big money deals. The head Salesman or Money maker in the company, was the Excel Macro King. They are a treasure trove of financial formulas for almost any task required.

I feel like there's this balance that needs to be kept regarding supply of programmers. On one hand, keeping supply low will keep wages high, which is good for us coders, and good for attracting talent, but probably overall bad for society due to forgone automation potential. On the other hand, if wages get too high, it will increase the appeal of alternatives to quench the supply - either litigation allowing more foreigners to participate in the us labor markets for programmers, or the investment into technologies that will reduce the need for programmers.

For example, a moderate amount of resources are spent on human productivity enhancers such as higher level programming languages, frameworks, IDE's which offer code analysis and assistance, and general automation toolchains. I like to think that a programmer who modestly invests in using this quality+quantity enhancing tech are quite a bit more productive today than 10 or 20 years ago.

I remember in the 90's how bad most software was - it crashed all the time, and was very basic. And, I imagine that crappy software took a long time to create. Now, you can quickly produce comparatively high quality programs.

Everywhere I look I see stuff that a programmer could automate. So many businesses and organizations probably have no idea just how much automation potential they have.

Tenpoundbass says

Excel Macro King

I've seen a lot of those guys in biotech labs.