8th graders don't think you're cool
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And what is it that put America in the forefront of the nuclear nations? And what is it that will make it possible to spend 20 billion dollars of your money to put some clown on the moon? Well, it was good old American know-how, that's what. As provided by good old Americans like Dr. Wernher von Braun.[^]
3x12=36 2x12=24 1x12=12 0x12=18
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I participated in a Career Day today for 8th graders. A group of businesspeople rotate through classrooms, talk about what they do and field questions. While I focused on my copywriting & speaking business, I touched on my previous lifetimes, including programming. In each of half a dozen classrooms, I asked how many people were interested in getting into programming / software development as a career. The grand total for all classes? Zero. The wild and wooly geek was once an object of fear, awe and admiration, a creature so bold and exciting that large masses of people wanted to become one. However, as best I can determine from limited empirical evidence, you are no longer cool. Certainly not in the eyes of the up and coming generation. Just thought you'd want to know. :)
Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
Copywriting Services -
Isn't it too soon for them to find out whether they are really interested in programming. What was the hot career? When I was in 8th grade, I wanted to be an Air Force Pilot.
Air Force Pilot?? I wanted to be a fighter-jet pilot! And now I'm a computer science student and a intern-programmer.
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I participated in a Career Day today for 8th graders. A group of businesspeople rotate through classrooms, talk about what they do and field questions. While I focused on my copywriting & speaking business, I touched on my previous lifetimes, including programming. In each of half a dozen classrooms, I asked how many people were interested in getting into programming / software development as a career. The grand total for all classes? Zero. The wild and wooly geek was once an object of fear, awe and admiration, a creature so bold and exciting that large masses of people wanted to become one. However, as best I can determine from limited empirical evidence, you are no longer cool. Certainly not in the eyes of the up and coming generation. Just thought you'd want to know. :)
Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
Copywriting Services -
"Once zey go up, who cares where zey come down? That's not my department," says Wernher von Braun.
Interestingly(?), more people died making the V-series flying bombs and rockets (slave labour) than died at the receiving end.
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Surprisingly, that was only the choice of a very few. Being an entertainer is much like being a programmer - you either are or you aren't. Interests were all over the map, but it wasn't just programming that took a hit. There wasn't much interest in IT related fields at all.
Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
Copywriting ServicesI've done a middle school career day a few times, but I slanted it toward robotics programming. One year I had a small robotic arm controlled by a computer. Another year I had a 120 lb. 5 foot tall robot from a first robotics competion that shot foam balls. The kids loved that. So I had pretty good interest. The other presenters where things like printer, pharmasist, artist and "golf course designer". I did another one for a college and I was talking about programming a digital archiving system using a tape robot, and had to follow a guy that worked on the space shuttle. Tough act to follow, but I still got some questions. Maybe if you slant it toward things like facebook, etc. Kids could make the connection. Brian
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I participated in a Career Day today for 8th graders. A group of businesspeople rotate through classrooms, talk about what they do and field questions. While I focused on my copywriting & speaking business, I touched on my previous lifetimes, including programming. In each of half a dozen classrooms, I asked how many people were interested in getting into programming / software development as a career. The grand total for all classes? Zero. The wild and wooly geek was once an object of fear, awe and admiration, a creature so bold and exciting that large masses of people wanted to become one. However, as best I can determine from limited empirical evidence, you are no longer cool. Certainly not in the eyes of the up and coming generation. Just thought you'd want to know. :)
Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
Copywriting Services -
I participated in a Career Day today for 8th graders. A group of businesspeople rotate through classrooms, talk about what they do and field questions. While I focused on my copywriting & speaking business, I touched on my previous lifetimes, including programming. In each of half a dozen classrooms, I asked how many people were interested in getting into programming / software development as a career. The grand total for all classes? Zero. The wild and wooly geek was once an object of fear, awe and admiration, a creature so bold and exciting that large masses of people wanted to become one. However, as best I can determine from limited empirical evidence, you are no longer cool. Certainly not in the eyes of the up and coming generation. Just thought you'd want to know. :)
Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
Copywriting ServicesHowever, as best I can determine from limited empirical evidence, you are no longer cool. Certainly not in the eyes of the up and coming generation
Hell, it would appear that we're not so cool in the eyes of the current and former generations either! I got into this business because I thought it was cool and I think others did too, but that was 14 years ago and now a days, everyone seems to look on us IT people as a bunch of janitors that clean up bits of data rather than bits of crap and so we aren't much different from janitorial staff to the others that aren't in IT. There really isn't much respect for IT types anymore and it's very frustrating. Of course, my observations are probably just limited to the three different places (and three completely different types of businesses) I've done professional full time IT work for over the last eight years. Perhaps the jr high students you speak of (oh wait, it's middle school students now ... damn I'm old!) are smarter than all of us combined!
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Dunno. I was mucking around with basic on my trash 80 color in 2nd grade. I wouldn't even pretend to consider myself a template for normal though. :laugh:
3x12=36 2x12=24 1x12=12 0x12=18
Hipster. When I was in 8th grade, the only people using computers were in secret rooms with raised floors. I never even saw a computer until I was in college. It was love at first sight.
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Well, I don't actually own a Ferrari. Not enough trunk space :p
Need custom software developed? I do custom programming based primarily on MS tools with an emphasis on C# development and consulting. A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation." --Stephen Crane
Phht. That's why you have a minion drive the Merc separately to the airport to carry your luggage.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
And now when you drive up they ask, "Would you like fries with that?" :)
Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
Copywriting ServicesF***in A', man. :-D
Software Zen:
delete this; -
I participated in a Career Day today for 8th graders. A group of businesspeople rotate through classrooms, talk about what they do and field questions. While I focused on my copywriting & speaking business, I touched on my previous lifetimes, including programming. In each of half a dozen classrooms, I asked how many people were interested in getting into programming / software development as a career. The grand total for all classes? Zero. The wild and wooly geek was once an object of fear, awe and admiration, a creature so bold and exciting that large masses of people wanted to become one. However, as best I can determine from limited empirical evidence, you are no longer cool. Certainly not in the eyes of the up and coming generation. Just thought you'd want to know. :)
Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
Copywriting ServicesWhen we were kids we could be wierd and we were just wierd. Kids these days get a diagnosis. They are ADHD or Aspergers or whatever and so they need treatment. Pump them full of drugs and cure them of their wierdness.
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Well, if you're going to lie like that, you might as well go completely overboard with it: "The top fifty richest people in the world all work with computers, most of them writing software, and in fact if you become a programmer you're pretty much guaranteed to become obscenely wealthy very quickly. And it's been scientifically proven that the hotter the girl is, the more attracted she is to a guy who works in a technical field. It's also been scientifically proven that software engineering increases the size of your penis. And your muscles. And the average life expectancy is, like, twelve years longer. And it increases your sperm count so much that they can't even be counted because there aren't enough atoms in the universe to express the digits." And so on. Teenagers are stupid - they'll believe it.
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I participated in a Career Day today for 8th graders. A group of businesspeople rotate through classrooms, talk about what they do and field questions. While I focused on my copywriting & speaking business, I touched on my previous lifetimes, including programming. In each of half a dozen classrooms, I asked how many people were interested in getting into programming / software development as a career. The grand total for all classes? Zero. The wild and wooly geek was once an object of fear, awe and admiration, a creature so bold and exciting that large masses of people wanted to become one. However, as best I can determine from limited empirical evidence, you are no longer cool. Certainly not in the eyes of the up and coming generation. Just thought you'd want to know. :)
Christopher Duncan
www.PracticalUSA.com
Author of The Career Programmer and Unite the Tribes
Copywriting ServicesWhen I learned BASIC and FOCAL on a PDP-8 as an adjunct to chemistry class in 10th grade, I didn't see programming as a career path, just a tool. I got my 8th grade son to try VB2005, but he'd rather just play with the Xbox. I tire of hearing about today's technologically savvy youth - as if typing with both thumbs while driving were an employable skill. Can anyone comment on Alice or similar informal systems for enticing kids to learn the trade?
there was only ever one purely original computer program, that was the first one...everything since is derivative to some degree - unknown
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Isn't it too soon for them to find out whether they are really interested in programming. What was the hot career? When I was in 8th grade, I wanted to be an Air Force Pilot.
I was terrified of programming in the 6th Grade. I used to barely pass my programming class (which was mandatory for some reason) and this was with something as simple as LOGO or QBasic. X| Here I am, programming for a living, and loving it! :laugh: I still want to be an Air-Force Pilot. ;)
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When I learned BASIC and FOCAL on a PDP-8 as an adjunct to chemistry class in 10th grade, I didn't see programming as a career path, just a tool. I got my 8th grade son to try VB2005, but he'd rather just play with the Xbox. I tire of hearing about today's technologically savvy youth - as if typing with both thumbs while driving were an employable skill. Can anyone comment on Alice or similar informal systems for enticing kids to learn the trade?
there was only ever one purely original computer program, that was the first one...everything since is derivative to some degree - unknown
I like your comment about typing with both thumbs while driving! Also those old PDP-8's were amazing machines in their day, I am sure you had fun! About Alice: I tried it on my 9 year old son. He was able to do some interesting things, but was not motivated enough to learn how to program it properly. Eventually, his attention wandered to other things. I think that we will give it another go in a year. This time I will sit down with him and walk him through it. Overall, I think Alice is a good idea. Mileage will vary according to the personality of the child. Give it a try. I suggest that you use it as a means to actively teach your child to program, rather than just let them use it as a toy. With your child being a young teen, he should have the cognitive skills to do quite a lot.