A link to codeyear.com has been doing the rounds on Twitter over the last couple of days. The idea is that you sign up for a weekly e-mail newsletter containing an interactive lesson which, over the course of the next year, will teach you how to code. (Before you ask: yes, I have signed up. It's all about the life-long learning, and the constant nagging feeling that I'm doing something wrong.) This prompted pieces from Brent Simmons — who quotes Douglas Rushkoff's "program or be programmed" from off the site (showing he has more restraint than me, who would instead have pointed out Paul Graham's rather unfortunate "invest two years ... to learn how to hack") — and Daniel Jalkut — who wonders whether aggregate programming ability could be used in a similar manner to literacy rates to measure a society's level of intellectual advancement.
While yesterday I was hesitant to endorse the idea of making programming a part of the national curriculum, studied by all school children, I should point out that I don't have a problem with people learning to code. (Just as long as they aren't better than me. Or learn HTML+CSS mark-up and call it coding.) The more coders the better, I say. So if you want to program — if you've ever felt even the tiniest urge to create something in code — then you should give it a go, and this seems like the perfect way to get your feet wet.
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