Ask HN: How to show my girlfriend programming is awesome?

1 points by Gideonnn 10 years ago | 4 comments

Hello HN,

I have been programming for almost six years now and I'm almost done with my bachelor's degree, so I'm comfortable programming in a variety of languages.

To someone who does not know what programming is, or how it works, it is quite hard to understand what I am going to do for a living for (hopefully) the rest of my life. But my girlfriend asked me to teach her a bit about programming.

So right now I am trying to construct some kind of introduction to programming for someone who does not have a technical or mathematical background at all.

For me it was using YouTube and books to teach myself, though that does not work for someone who just wants the taste. What should I start with?

I was thinking about Python, easy enough to hide some abstraction to start with, and an easy transition between console and the web in case she likes it.

Please give me some tips to show the fun side in programming to a total newb!

eugenekolo2 10 years ago |

The question is really do they want to learn, do they want to just see something cool and call it a day, or are they just humouring you?

Gideonnn 10 years ago | |

The interest is real, though the learning curve is probably too steep. That's why I need a friendly way to show her how it's done. Maybe the interest will grow and develop into reading books etc, but I don't count on it.

It's more about showing her how programming works and let her see how it's done, not about converting her to the nerd-side.

eugenekolo2 10 years ago | | |

Does she like games? Watch some cool making a game in 5-days videos.

bikamonki 10 years ago |

Hack her FB account, make something funny once inside.