Ask HN: About the cold war Going on Hackernews

4 points by bkvirendra 14 years ago | 2 comments

Well this is really confusing for guys like us who have just began their careers as programmers. The top posts on HN are all about whether "you should learn coding" and "you shouldnt learn coding because ... blah ... blah ...". Its like a Cold war going on here on HN. And I mean WTF !! Everyone has his/her rights to share their views about a particular topic. Why do you have to criticize someone for his/ her post (by creating a new post and criticizing them for their wrong views) <p>And I just want to ask ! What exactly are these guys trying to prove from their posts (of you should/shouldnt learn coding) !!

sp332 14 years ago |

Jeff Atwood just got fed up with the amount of crappy code he's had to deal with in his career and vented on his blog. Now everyone is getting defensive. The main thing to remember, is to learn some coding culture and work on real craftsmanship while you are learning to program. Especially if you're working on projects that you're trying to share with other people.

vail130 14 years ago |

Personally, I wouldn't spend much time trying to figure out what these people are trying to prove. Take what they say at face value. Decide if you think the arguments are comprehensive and logical, or not.

The second one makes a value judgment about what people should or shouldn't do, that person is probably no longer fully correct. I love creating things, I obsess over tiny details, and I'm interested in technology, so programming just fits for me. But it doesn't fit for everyone.

I did not find Jeff Atwood's blog post very compelling, but if his goal is to reduce the number of people who talk the talk and can't walk the walk, then it's a little too Machiavellian for my taste, but not such a bad cause.

At the end of the day, do what you love, because what you do will never love you.