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It seems like everyone is trying to learn to code: Code.org has celebrities like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Chris Bosh telling you anyone can code; CoderDojo's are springing up all over the country; the UK has made it part of their official curriculum for all grade school kids.
I think this is slightly misguided. Don't get me wrong - I do think the world would be better off if everyone had some familiarity with coding - but coding itself should not be the goal. Computers and programming are just tools. They are a means to an end. The real goal should be to teach people a new way to think. In other words, we should be trying to teach computer science and not just coding. In this blog post, inspired by Simon Peyton Jones' wonderful TED talk Teaching Creative Computer Science, I'll explain the difference between the two, and why focusing on the right one is critical for the movement to succeed.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 05 2014, @08:02PM
Those aren't examples of you overanalyzing, they're just examples of you being a dick and ignoring or just ignorant of the fact that there are often things left implied in language.
In the first example, here is what the waitress was actually saying: "If you need more coffee, [let me know. By the way,] my name is Sally.
In the second one: [Reporting from here] in New York, I'm Wolf Blitzer.
Do you always restate the person or object about which you're speaking rather than using pronouns, and also constantly speak in the third person? If not, how else can you understand what "he", "you", or "I" mean? So then you must understand implicitness in language, and are simply being an asshole.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday July 05 2014, @09:26PM
AC: Did you really thing it was necessary to state to obvious?
Was there any indication I don't know what was meant?
Which of us was being the dick here?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.