Why we should turn off the computer to learn code

To be simplistic coding is problem solving with a computer. But perhaps the best way to learn is by turning it off. That maybe especially true for our children and the next generation of coders.

Not all lingua franca

Code is syntactic and semantic. Of course syntax is important but a good coder it does not make. In the 60s phycologists measured aptitude with coding skills. IBM’s programmer aptitude test (IBM-PAT) chief amongst them. We still do it today with the technical interview.

It took another two decades for cognitive scientists to get in on the act. Looking at the coder and the problem. I consider this the domain of semantics and given the measured variation of coding efficiency is some 2000% after correcting for syntactic knowledge, it’s important.

Cogito, ergo sum

Few have read Hintikka’s Socratic Epistemology. I can’t test the validity of my statement. I haven’t read it all. I infer others haven’t. Hintikka’s writing on the grandfather of formal logic questions the very nature of knowledge. How we ask questions and use logic to create it.

It’s childs play

Some children start asking questions at two. Parents duly supply answers to the bombardment. This is how we learn. But our answers often aren’t nuanced and can be designed to combat the inevitable, trailing why?

We can teach logic much earlier. It’s a hedge for how important code has become, to users and coders alike. Children learn through play and logic must be encoded into their games. In so doing, our children will be better thinkers and some of them, great coders. For those longer in the tooth, channeling Socrates and learning logic is just as important.