TITLE: Be a Driver, Not a Passenger
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: December 12, 2012  4:18 PM
DESC: 
-----
BODY:
Some people say that programming isn't for everyone, just as
knowing how to tinker under the hood of one's car isn't for
everyone.  Some people design and build cars; other people
fix them; and the rest of us use them as high-level tools.

Douglas Rushkoff explains why this analogy is wrong:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
Programming a computer is not like being the mechanic of an
automobile.  We're not looking at the difference between a
mechanic and a driver, but between a driver and a passenger.
If you don't know how to drive the car, you are forever
dependent on your driver to take you where you want to go.
You're even dependent on that driver to tell you when a
place exists.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

This is
<A HREF="http://www.csedweek.org/">
   CS Education week</A>,
"a highly distributed celebration of the impact of computing
and the need for computer science education".  As a part of
the festivities, Rushkoff was scheduled to address members
of Congress and their staffers today about "the value of
digital literacy".  The passage quoted above is one of
<A HREF="http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/10/opinion/rushkoff-code-writing/index.html">
   ten points he planned to make</A>
in his address.

As good as the other nine points are -- and several are very
good -- I think the distinction between driver and passenger
is the key, the essential idea for folks to understand about
computing.  If you can't program, you are not a driver; you
are a passenger on someone else's trip.  <EM>They get to
decide where you go</EM>.  You may want to invent a new
place entirely, but you don't have the tools of invention.
Worse yet, you may not even have the tools you need to
imagine the new place.  The world is as it is presented to
you.

Don't just go along for the ride.  Drive.
-----