dwaynecrooks
Joined 14 years ago
Karma
155
Submissions
15
Member since
Aug 15
http://blog.dwaynecrooks.com/
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Comment · 10 years ago
> If you're gonna spend many thousands of hours using a language, don't use initial learn-time as the one thing to optimize for!
That reminds me of this wonderful talk by Rich Hickey called Simple Made Easy, https://www.infoq.com/presentations/Simple-Made-Easy.
Comment · 10 years ago
This article is 100% about a way to learn Python efficiently.
Comment · 10 years ago
Huh? Where in the article did I say or imply that learning Pyret is an efficient way to learn Python? I said if you're a complete beginner then you can consider Pyret. As for people who already know some programming I didn't suggest Pyret to them at all.
Comment · 10 years ago
That's true, sorry about that.
Thanks to whoever fixed it.
Comment · 10 years ago
> Point is, we think in different ways, so keep trying different approaches until something sticks.
So true, great advice. You have to experiment and find out what works for yourself.
Comment · 10 years ago
I tend to agree as well. The Pyret option is probably better done with a mentor by your side. If no mentor is available like they probably have in the Bootstrap (http://www.bootstrapworld.org/) program then Python is more than likely the better option. So I'd expect 99% of the people to stick with Python anyway which is fine.
Comment · 10 years ago
I know exactly what you mean. I got interested in programming because I wanted to build cool things. I just dived right in trying to learn whatever was necessary to help me build games. Unfortunately, plenty people aren't coming to programming with that exploratory and playful mindset.
I also agree with you that math, CS and science education is really messed up, especially in my country.
Here's an old gem of a talk from a fantastic CS educator, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efhh0Cf6sT8, that I found some years ago.
Comment · 10 years ago
Well, first off it's just a suggestion so take it with a grain of salt and ultimately do what works for you.
But I see your point and I did struggle with whether to include it or not. I think me wanting to share the great work I see Shriram Krishnamurthi (https://cs.brown.edu/~sk/) and others (Matthias Felleisen, http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/matthias/ for another example) are doing and have been doing for decades to advance Computer Science education and really tackle the tough problems pushed me to include it in the end.
I'm just a fan of their work and this post felt like a great time to mention it.
However, I do share your feelings that most people should just jump in and learn Python as their first language. It's easy to get started, batteries included and there's plenty of resources and people to help them if they get stuck.