It's not impressive. The problem is, no one yet realizes that any person who can learn algebra can achieve this level of skill in less time then it took to pick up algebra. That's what I mean by "you can learn it at a bootcamp." You can hire a random homeless person off the street and in a couple months have him be a competent junior programmer. I'd be willing to pay minimum wage for that level of skill and like you said, that's probably all I need for "glue code."
What's going on right now is a bubble. People perceive these skills to be "hot stuff" when in fact it is just "average" or even "below average"
When the bubble bursts all programmer wages will go down after everyone realizes that programming is a skill akin to driving or algebra. Anyone can do this trivial work.
>First of all, please don't use "random homeless person off the street" this way. It's insulting and also many homeless people are highly intelligent.
>Try "random walmart shopper" (a box store that everyone visits.) or just random person.
Random Walmart shoppers are people too and they can be intelligent as well. I use the word homeless not to imply lack of intelligence or to insult, but to imply that even a person with no ability/capability/desire of getting a job can with minimal training gain those skills.
>As for your claim that a random person can learn to write glue code, well, we're going to disagree.
Can any person learn algebra? Can any person learn arithmetic? Can any person learn to read an english book? All of these things, seem trivial to learn, but they are not trivial at all. It is only because of the context in which we learn these things do we find it easy later in life, but fail to remember that at the time of learning, these concepts are just as hard as programming.
Programming is not easy to learn just like how reading english is not easy to learn at all. But make no mistake, just like how basically anyone can learn to read english, anyone can learn how to program. Some people have talent for learning languages others don't, but with time, everyone can learn it. That's how cheap this skill is.
The very existence of bootcamps hinges on this concept that anyone can learn. People walk out of a bootcamps thinking they have talent or were taught incredible skills. The reality is, everything they learned is available online for free. They paid money to learn because they lack the self control to do it themselves.
So do you think the average person off the street (the random walmart shopper) can go through a coding bootcamp successfully? I don't think so.
I think the people who can go through a coding boot camp successfully have great arithmetic skills, great reading skills, and can easily solve 2x-7=11 for x in their head in a moment 100% of the time. (Basic algebra 1.) And can read any generic software manual easily, if the manual doesn't assume too much prior knowledge and is written at a basic level.
I don't think the average walmart shopper can do it.
Do you disagree? What do you think the baseline skills are for people who go through a coding bootcamp successfully? Maybe you have more experience with those people than I do. I think of them as intelligent, educated people with above-average SAT scores but without specialized programming training, who decide to go through a boot camp. They're curious, motivated, smart. But they're not programmers.
>I think the people who can go through a coding boot camp successfully have great arithmetic skills, great reading skills, and can easily solve 2x-7=11 for x in their head in a moment 100% of the time. (Basic algebra 1.) And can read any generic software manual easily, if the manual doesn't assume too much prior knowledge and is written at a basic level.
Anybody can do what you just described with practice and training. The typical high school education along with programming is achievable by the typical person.
>I don't think the average walmart shopper can do it.
Stop insulting walmart shoppers.
>Do you disagree? What do you think the baseline skills are for people who go through a coding bootcamp successfully? Maybe you have more experience with those people than I do. I think of them as intelligent, educated people with above-average SAT scores but without specialized programming training, who decide to go through a boot camp. They're curious, motivated, smart. But they're not programmers.
I don't even think you need to go through a bootcamp to get the baseline skills needed for your typical "glue code" job.
Anybody can learn programming. People who go through a bootcamp typically have enough skills to do the job but they likely may not have enough skills to pass a coding interview. Coding interviews are, unfortunately, harder and unrelated to the job.
You said "stop insulting walmart shoppers", but we're talking about intellectual labor. It's not an insult: I don't think given pen and paper but no google, the average person can solve 2x-7=11 for x. (Algebra 1.) I do think the average person knows their multiplication table and can add and subtract small numbers.
Anyway we clearly view people's baselines differently. Maybe you're the one who's right.
What's going on right now is a bubble. People perceive these skills to be "hot stuff" when in fact it is just "average" or even "below average"
When the bubble bursts all programmer wages will go down after everyone realizes that programming is a skill akin to driving or algebra. Anyone can do this trivial work.