Ask HN: How do I get my brother into programming?

7 points by frankdilo 4 years ago | 9 comments

My brother is a somewhat hopeless 21-years-old, working in the service industry, who never completed his studies and spent most of his teenage years partying.

I am a software engineer, running a tech startup and earning a top-five-percent salary in my home country.

Here is the thing: I bet my ass my brother has my same IQ (if not higher). He is deep into video games and crazy good at them and a good problem solver in real life. He might be missing purpose/direction and I think programming might be a way out.

What's the best way to introduce him to programming in a way that's not dull and could sparkle his interest?

codingdave 4 years ago |

Is he unhappy?

Because from your description, you didn't say anything about him other than he isn't living up to your standards. If he is unhappy and looking for more, you can offer to show him your industry and see what he thinks. Otherwise, let him live his life, and let him know you are there for him if he ever needs anything.

LinuxBender 4 years ago |

Just my opinion, but you might find something your brother is interested in that intersects with programming. The interest should drive the learning, so it becomes a hobby that keeps his interest vs becoming a "job" or chore. e.g. If he were into video games and game modding, show him how to write the mods or hacks to give him more control over the game. Start small and simple.

dschuessler 4 years ago |

There are video games out there that pose challenges very similar to the one's one encounters when programming. Several commenters have mentioned in other threads that Factorio is such a game. (I never played it myself.) If that's the kind of game your brother is interested in, you might sell him on programming by saying: "In essence, it's just that, but paid."

I remember playing an educational web game long ago where you had to program a robot with a limited set of control flow statements so that it could autonomously reach a goal. The game had an isometric perspective and the robot had to react to all kinds of obstacles. If anyone remembers this game, please post a link. It was great but I didn't bookmark it.

ftkftk 4 years ago | |

This sounds like https://lightbot.com/. This app really helped my son think through problem solving sequentially before moving on to Scratch https://scratch.mit.edu/.

Since Op's brother is an adult he may be better served with a Raspberry Pi, which is not quite as "cutesy", but can still be interfaced with a drag and drop programming language like Scratch. Then one can graduate to more advanced projects. Check out https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en for inspiration.

dschuessler 4 years ago | | |

Yes, that must be it! Thank you. Looking in the Wayback Machine, there was a Flash version years ago. I must have played that.

dave_sid 4 years ago |

Maybe get him to implement a bubble sort algorithm in Rust. That’s bound to do it.

kilodeca 4 years ago |

Maybe introduce him to programming video games.

prower 4 years ago |

May I suggest the PS4 videogame Dreams?

Could be the perfect trojan horse to get him into programming.

Beware it's a MASSIVE time-sinker.

artful-hacker 4 years ago |

Maybe offer him a job?