February 5, 2019

"Learn to code" is irritating, but why would you do anything but ignore it?


ADDED: Remember that Washington Post Super Bowl ad that called on us to admire journalists because some of them go into war zones and show great courage in the face of real physical dangers? Here, watch it again and as the faces go by imagine Popken in the mix, with a caption about the time he was told to learn to code....


82 comments:

traditionalguy said...

Run, the Censors are coming, the Censors are coming.

Unknown said...

Not sure why this wasn't irritating when Obama said it. Maybe someone could pay him to say it again and make it all feel better.

Quayle said...

So this is the end result of progressivism? An "I'm telling on you!" culture?

Chris Lopes said...

What a bunch of nonselfaware wusses.

jim said...

Learn to code is good advice for anyone who doesn't know how to code, sort of like "learn to read".

jim said...

Unless it is meant to hurt poor tender journalist types

Anthony said...

Talk about glass jaws. . . . . .

John said...

We seemed to have passed the "let it go and move on" approach to annoying a long time ago. In this age, we see the "I'm telling Mom" retort transition from the child to the adult. Perhaps by people who've always had Mom (or Dad) there to defend them against the hurt feelings of even the slightly mean people of the world.

robother said...

"Learn to squeal." America always could use more Stasi. The pay sucks, but ruining someone else's career has its own rewards.

Big Mike said...

I agree with Unknown (4:19), and add that Hillary Clinton said much the same thing when she visited the southern part of West Virginia and was confronted by coal miners put out of work by Barack Obama's policies. I guess it's okay when elitists tell coal miners to learn how to program, but not at all nice when programming as a career is suggested to the college-educated unemployed.

Jeff Brokaw said...

What a precious snowflake. That comeback by Sean Davis is both hilarious and spot-on.

Bruce Hayden said...

One problem here is that a lot of people can’t learn to code. I seriously doubt that Obama could learn. Or Crooked Hillary, etc. probably a majority of those in Congress. Likely not AOC and a lot of the mathematically challenged Democrats in DC. Or very many of those laid off Buzzfeed people. Coding, at a minimum, requires the use of logic, and, yes, at least some mathematics. So, yes, it is insulting, suggesting to these people that they do something that they couldn’t do if their lives depended on it. Rubbing in how stupid and illogical they are.

tcrosse said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
tcrosse said...

Coding is like playing the harmonica or taking photographs. Anybody can do it poorly, but it's very difficult to do it well. BTW, schools in India are turning out armies of people who do it well.

Rick said...

"Learn to code" is not acceptable. "I'll blow whoever punches this kid" is.

The left's priorities.

MayBee said...

I mean, if everyone could just learn to code, it would stop being such a well paying job, right?
i do find it fascinating that reporters, who apparently didn't know how to code, were so eager to tell other people that changing their lives after losing their jobs was just that simple. But now they can't handle hearing it back.
Is there a thinner skinned more self-important profession than journalists? More "dish it out but can't take it"-y profession?

MayBee said...

"Learn to act" we could say, and then everyone would be a millionaire movie star.

YoungHegelian said...

@Bruce H.

One problem here is that a lot of people can’t learn to code.

Yes, please. Stay out of coding. Software is bad enough as it is.

I've recently seen signs by the highway advertising "Become an Oracle DBA!", & I think, "Good Lord, save us!".

Programming is a rather unique skill set, and it's not for everyone (probably no skill set short of "getting food from plate to mouth" is for everyone).

Mike Sylwester said...

The USA is importing lots of coders from India who will work cheaper than Americans who have learned to code.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

Learn to code gets you banned. But saying you want to put the MAGA kid head first in a wood chipper is OK with Twitter.

Time to break up Twitter.

Matt Sablan said...

It is good advice.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

In fairness it is really bad advice. As soon as they unemployed PhD in romantic comedies learn to code they will have even more student loan debt.

Then they'll be replaced by Hindus on HB1 visas and have to retrain all over again. Maybe it's a big conspiracy to flip them to America First voters.

I say get a CDL. Lots of work and some companies will pay your tuition.

Birkel said...

Was it bothersome when Obama told coal miners to Learn To Code?
Did your pre-missing of Obama make you unaware of Obama's hostility to US working class folks?

Learn. To. Code.

Quayle said...

The thing I really want to know is how does one even survive without Twitter?

I mean, is that even possible? Can you even make it 48 or 72 hours if your account is suspended?

YoungHegelian said...

@Mike H,

The USA is importing lots of coders from India who will work cheaper than Americans who have learned to code.

And a lot of them aren't very good, either. The American Right likes to say about American education that it turns out the credentialed not the educated.

That's Indian education in a nutshell, too

Original Mike said...

I'm another one who thinks most journalists couldn't learn to code if their lives depended upon it.

Quayle said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
iowan2 said...

What is the insult? I took it as a soon to be colloquialism. It means, "sorry you lost your job, get out there in the world and get trained up in a different field, this bump in the road is actually a blessing."

Quayle said...

Good coders cannot be mass produced. You can either see the entire thing in your head (and type furiously to code it while it is clear), or you can't. It takes a very high degree of abstract reasoning.

If you want really exceptional coders, your best bet is to hire and train starving musicians, not English majors.

gadfly said...

Learning to code used to mean "learning to write instructions for a computer - unless you coding to make messages "secret" or unreadable by cypherers - but that process was a computer derived process as well.

If "code" has gained additional meanings , us old folks don't know or care

Lucid-Ideas said...

Leave time in your busy schedule
Engage colleagues actively
Apply yourself in every situation
Respect your team and teammate
Never be opposed to discovery
Take the initiative
Organize your home and work life
Compensate for personal deficiencies
Obtain help when it’s needed
Determine your strengths and weaknesses
Earn – don’t assume – others’ respect

What a positive message. What's all the fuss?

Mark Jones said...

Why would you do anything but ignore it when someone tells you "Learn to code"?

Because it's a case of lese majestie--the deplorables are daring to insult their betters, and this impudence cannot be tolerated!

Paul Zrimsek said...

Learn to hack. You'll be able to delete their account yourself.

Lucid-Ideas said...

I've been told there's more money in blockchain anyway.

#learntomine

tcrosse said...

Slinging code can be very humbling. If it's not, you're doing it wrong.

Wince said...

Notice the ambiguous construction of Popken's sentence.

Journalists if they tweet "learn to code" at you don't stay silent, take a moment to report it.

It reads as a what to do if "journalists" tweet "learn to code" to at you, which is how this whole thing started with coal miners.

If Popken's advice was instead intended for journalists, wouldn't it read...

Journalists, if they tweet "learn to code" at you, don't stay silent, take a moment to report it.

Luckily, for Mr. Popken, "there's always barber college ."

Leland said...

You should always diversify, even your talents. Learn to code is simply a reminder that if you don't do well at one thing; you might be better at another.

Alas the difference when Obama said it and now, is the job market is much better and more diverse under Trump. The exceptions are journalism and retail.

RK said...

Journalist have to buy TV commercials to tell us how important they are. As if they didn't already have the mass media bullhorn. Dopes.

rhhardin said...

I like coding. It's a play for pay job.

Unknown said...

Wait... a reporter was in the Eagle with Aldrin and Armstrong? How brave indeed!

Yancey Ward said...

He ran and told his mommy first, though.

Yancey Ward said...

Lucky for Popken there is always Clown College.

Jim at said...

I didn't remember all these so-called journalists thinking "Learn to code" was irritating when they smugly suggested it to coal miners being put out of work by Obama's policies.

Anybody got a link?

Drago said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Drago said...

Learn to Code" was super funny and super on-point and super-cool to throw at deplorables around the country.

But as soon as the term was being thrown at the lefties and LLR's (a distinction without any difference of course) suddenly its so far beyond the pale that it must be stamped out immediately.

Precisely similar to how the lefties/LLR's launched the "Fake News" missile at Trump/conservatives only to see Trump in real time "culturally hack" the dem/lefty/LLR missile and redirect it right back at them....at which point the term "Fake News" magically was transformed into an attack in our institutions!

It will always be this way with the lefties and the LLR's, just as we see on this blog.

Anonymous said...

Bill, Republic of Texas said...
In fairness it is really bad advice. As soon as they unemployed PhD in romantic comedies learn to code they will have even more student loan debt.

Then they'll be replaced by Hindus on HB1 visas and have to retrain all over again. Maybe it's a big conspiracy to flip them to America First voters.


But it will open their eyes to problems with the immigration system, which is a plus :)

Anonymous said...

RK said...
Journalist have to buy TV commercials to tell us how important they are. As if they didn't already have the mass media bullhorn. Dopes.


That assumes somebody reads what they write on paper

tim in vermont said...

It might surprise them to learn that millions of people are happy to give their opinions on the internet for free. I remember when I decided to learn to code. It’s when it became apparent to me, this is in the early ‘90s, that a job I took a lot of pride in could be done much better and faster by computers.

But I didn’t have nearly the sense of entitlement that these pricks have.

tim in vermont said...

If you want really exceptional coders, your best bet is to hire and train starving musicians, not English majors

As an English major who morphed into software design, which is mostly writing, finally, at the end, though I did a lot of coding to gain the trust and credibility to do design. I agree with your statement. But then I have always been an amateur musician never stupid enough to want to ruin the joy of making music by doing it for a living.

Then again, when I was an English major, it was a lot more rigorous and focused on critical thinking, “what was the author trying to say?” than focused on teaching us what to think. “Why is this book’s portrayal of wimin evil?"

tim in vermont said...

The whole purpose of a PhD in “Romantic Comedies” is to deconstruct and destroy the genre that has brought so much pleasure to so many, as long as nobody believed what you saw on the screen.

tim in vermont said...

AOC has a degree in economics, unless they are just handing them out, she could learn to code. She has made a choice and she’s running with it.

Pillage Idiot said...

Journalists think they are the most empathetic people on the planet, but their stories suggest they have difficulty relating to anyone outside of their bubble.

I consider the "learn to code" jibe, to be an excellent example of the story of the boy tattling to his mom, but getting no response the first time.

A small boy screeches loudly and then runs to the next room.

Boy: "Mom, Suzy pulled my hair again. Make her stop!"
Mom: "Oh honey, she just doesn't know that it hurts."
Boy: "OK." Leaves the room.

Two minutes, a louder screech is now heard. The boy runs back into the room to see his mother.

Boy: "Now she knows!"


The current crop of journalists can only learn how it feels to be on the receiving end of a sh*t sandwich, when they are forced to actually take a bite of the sh*t sandwiches they constantly dish out to others.

tim in vermont said...

It would be better advice if the government weren’t suppressing the wages of coders by bringing in indentured servants to do the work cheap. Nobody is going to go after Alphabet and Facebook on that one though. They now hold all of the cards.

dbp said...

I saw the same Twitter post and was entertained enough to make a Blogspot entry--mine was from before Althous', so I can't be accused of copying her. We both point to the WP Superbowl ad.

What A Splendid Time To Be Alive

bagoh20 said...

It's not as dangerous as living in the hood in Chicago, Detroit, or Los Angeles like the people who get shot, not by white cops, but by black yutes, and who get ignored by the brave journalists who never talk about it, let alone go there, and who believe that black lives matter... under the right circumstances.

Amadeus 48 said...



What a laughingstock Popkin has made of himself.

He’s done better than Rupert Pupkin in The King of Comedy.

William said...

What about mimes? There's not much demand for mimes these days. My heart goes out to them. That's a difficult skill to master. Probably takes years to learn how to do it properly, and what do you get when you finish your training. I suppose they could cross train into fitness coaches or make up artists, but that doesn't have the glamour and rush of being a mime.

Amadeus 48 said...

Wa-wa-waaaah! Make them stop being mean! Waaaaah!

zipity said...

I'll take "Because They Are Whiny Intolerant A**hole Babies" for $1,000 Alex....

Fritz said...

If you don’t know how to code, at least a little , computers and the internet might as well be magic.

Arashi said...

Well, let them learn to dig ditches by hand. Using a shovel is a skill that pretty much any human can master.

There are too many hacks in the software industry as it is - it does not need a bunch of fomer, whiny "journalists" to learn to code and get jobs.

zipity said...

Leave it to Treacher.

https://pjmedia.com/trending/learn-to-code-good-advice-or-hate-speech/


"I know I speak for all of us when I say that our thoughts and prayers are with our very important journalists in this difficult time. They could’ve chosen easy careers, like coal mining or law enforcement or firefighting. But instead they chose to become literal firefighters, fighting fires in the form of mean tweets that hurt their feelings."

"Stay strong, journo friends. And please, please, do not learn to code. You simply can’t meet that industry’s higher standards of accuracy."

Gk1 said...

What funny is their reaction is like an old fogey that doesn't seem to understand how quickly memes and partisan sniping can travel via the internet so it must be some Alt Right conspiracy. Christ, this what Aunt Bessie who's 75 believed about the communists back in the 50's that they all must come from the same cell of agents. Hilarious.

Bruce Hayden said...

“Coding is like playing the harmonica or taking photographs. Anybody can do it poorly, but it's very difficult to do it well. BTW, schools in India are turning out armies of people who do it well.”

When I was an in-house patent attorney, we had design centers around the world. And I found it interesting that different ethnic groups had different strengths.
- Indians: software
- Russians: theoretical mathematics
- Chinese: improving products through diligent engineering
- Israeli: quick and dirty effective engineering.

Not that other ethnic groups can’t make do a good job at writing software, but it seems to fit better with Indian brains.

Bruce Hayden said...

“I like coding. It's a play for pay job.”

A bit over 40 years ago, I found myself spending more time writing software as a hobby, than selling insurance, which was my day job. When the Census Bureau offered me a job programming more than halfway across the country in Suitland, MD I jumped at it, packing everything I owned into my car and driving back there to take the job. And had no regrets, though the DC area sucked big time. Still does. Horrible climate, bad roads, etc.

Arashi said...

Having worked with a lot of folks from India in the software industry, I say no, absolutley, no. They are not any better at it than folks from the US, Canada, Europe, China, Japan, etc.

They will work cheaper though.

donald said...

Cause you’re about half as bright as you think you are?

JaimeRoberto said...

I like how he describes "learn to code" as an inauthentic and coordinated attack. It's gotta be Russian bots. It can't possibly be because individuals find journalists to be unsympathetic characters pushing lies. Bless his little heart.

Henry said...

A lot of teams I've worked for use offshore programmers for QA. It's not about quality or skill. It's just a way to separate concerns.

Henry said...

How about "learn to plumb?"

Remember Nixon's plumbers? A journalist should know where the leaks are.

Henry said...

David Brooks: Learn to dry clean.

Henry said...

Or "learn to iron"

Arashi said...

Yeah - plumbers! And with the advent of toilets that flush up, all they need to know is that Friday is payday.

Or maybe they could scope out "septic tank cleaners" - the job sucks, literally, and you have to get into the shit, literally, but people do appreciate the service. :)

Henry said...

There's a local guy in my region of Massachusetts. All he does is clear interior drains. The septic guys don't like to clear interior drains. They prefer to work the outdoor lines. And there's a lot of competition in the septic business. The indoor guy charges a lot, but to be honest, he doesn't charge enough. There's no one else to call.

Sebastian said...

""Learn to code" is irritating, but why would you do anything but ignore it?"

Why would you . . . Well, if you are part of a self-aggrandizing, self-important, self-righteous guild, used to singing your own praises and getting attention, promoting The Narrative along with your fellow progs thus counting on solidarity among comrades, and getting a very strong MAGA vibe from the sarcastic attack, why wouldn't you?

Arashi said...

I have a lot of respect for the septic cleaners. Plus, I know way too much about my system after having to replace the pump on a Sunday because the former owner got tired of the high level alarm going off so he bypassed it by plugging the pump directly into the receptacle, causing said pump to burn out, on a Sunday. Tank pumped and off I went to McClendons hardware to buy a pump and install it.

Lots of fun.

Big Mike said...

@tim in vermont, back in the days when object-oriented programming was becoming the wave of the future, the best programmer on my staff in the new object-oriented paradigm had his BA in English. Without a degree in computer science or years of programming experience with 3rd generation procedural programming languages to draw on, he had no preconceived notions about how programs were "supposed" to be written so he took right to the new paradigm.

However the days when object-oriented programs were the next big thing are a long way in the rear view mirror.

Known Unknown said...

I guess there aren't enough coal miners on Twitter.

Jupiter said...

It used to be that a young person got a job as a reporter because they needed the money, even though there wasn't much of it. Then over time they discovered that it was pleasant to know things other people didn't know. And then they discovered that it was pleasant to have a job where you could drink during the day. At no point did this person regard himself as a "journalist".

Larry J said...

Perhaps journalists are offended when tokd they should learn to code because they know they can’t. Programming requires intelligence, logic, and extreme attention to detail. I see few journalsts who posses those traits. You might as well tell them to become professional athletes. That would be about as likely as them becoming professional programmers.

stlcdr said...

Funny how the left (which includes the media) take offense at anything, while the right takes any phrase spewed by the left to create an offense is taken by the right as a badge of honor.

The rule ‘actions speak louder than words’ still applies.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

I learned to play the harmonica, but only at a Bob Dylan level, that is, not well enough to be worthwhile. Come to think of it, I never even liked the sound of a harmonica, so it was an even bigger waste of time.

I doubt I could learn to code, but I'd give it a try if I had to.