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paulg's profile
Paul Graham
Paul Graham
Paul Graham
Verified account
@paulg

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Paul GrahamVerified account

@paulg

paulgraham.com
Joined August 2010

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    1. Paul Graham‏Verified account @paulg 21 Apr 2017

      Technical debt is bad, but (more often than not) optimal.

      32 replies 275 retweets 636 likes
    2. Paul Graham‏Verified account @paulg 21 Apr 2017
      Replying to @paulg

      Interestingly, incurring technical debt tends to be the optimal strategy for individuals as well as for startups.

      9 replies 48 retweets 155 likes
    3. Paul Graham‏Verified account @paulg 21 Apr 2017
      Replying to @paulg

      Young programmers are better off not starting with the theoretical foundations of CS, but by eagerly writing crappy programs.

      55 replies 355 retweets 715 likes
      Paul Graham‏Verified account @paulg 21 Apr 2017

      That sounds obvious, doesn't it? And yet few if any schools and universities can bring themselves to teach programming this way.

      1:52 AM - 21 Apr 2017
      • 31 Retweets
      • 112 Likes
      • Wang, Ted Holly Toc Dieter Hovekamp Kurosch D. Habibi Satya 🃏 ☕️BenGitsCode☕️ Sarah-Jayne Gratton Viral News Daliso
      22 replies 31 retweets 112 likes
        1. New conversation
        2. Chris Barchak‏ @cbarchak 21 Apr 2017
          Replying to @paulg

          Are there really computer science majors who haven’t already been programmers for 10+ years?

          10 replies 1 retweet 18 likes
        3. Paul Graham‏Verified account @paulg 21 Apr 2017
          Replying to @cbarchak

          Oh dude. You have no idea how many angry people there are on Twitter who are eager to answer that for you.

          3 replies 0 retweets 74 likes
        4. Chris Barchak‏ @cbarchak 21 Apr 2017
          Replying to @paulg

          I’m sure you’re right. But how many art majors made their first pencil sketch at 18?

          6 replies 1 retweet 26 likes
        5. Paul Graham‏Verified account @paulg 21 Apr 2017
          Replying to @cbarchak

          I'm not disagreeing with you so much as explaining that this is a topic some people have very strong political beliefs about.

          4 replies 0 retweets 13 likes
        6. Yaron Minsky‏ @yminsky 21 Apr 2017
          Replying to @paulg @cbarchak

          The objection is factual, not political. Few CS undergrads have deep experience with programming before school.

          3 replies 0 retweets 22 likes
        7. Chris Barchak‏ @cbarchak 21 Apr 2017
          Replying to @yminsky @paulg

          That may well be true today. Didn’t feel like the case in early 90s. Did we stop teaching programming in schools? Why?

          3 replies 0 retweets 5 likes
        8. Richard Dalton  🇪🇺‏ @richardadalton 23 Apr 2017
          Replying to @cbarchak @yminsky @paulg

          No. In the 80's and 90's home computers were marketed to boys. And we're still living with the impact of that in terms of gender gap.

          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        9. Paul Graham‏Verified account @paulg 23 Apr 2017
          Replying to @richardadalton @cbarchak @yminsky

          Microcomputers weren't marketed to boys when they first appeared, but only boys were interested in them.

          4 replies 1 retweet 8 likes
        10. 7 more replies
        1. Mister D‏ @CallMeMisterD 21 Apr 2017
          Replying to @paulg

          The point of tech debt (as with cash debt) is you leverage your future to gain an advantage in the present. Debt isn't bad by itself

          0 replies 3 retweets 3 likes
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        1. New conversation
        2. Eric Dykstra‏ @Eric_Dykstra 21 Apr 2017
          Replying to @paulg

          Schools and universities generally teach computer science, not programming.

          1 reply 1 retweet 4 likes
        3. Matthew Mengerink‏ @mengerin 21 Apr 2017
          Replying to @Eric_Dykstra @paulg

          Edsger Dijkstra used to call himself a "Programmer" and considered it the most honorable title.

          0 replies 0 retweets 4 likes
        4. End of conversation
        1. ᴇʟᴀɪɴᴇ ʏᴇᴜɴɢ 𝘼𝙆𝘼 уσυя ηєχт ηєω нιяє‏ @egsy 21 Apr 2017
          Replying to @paulg

          I'm a fledgling programmer "eagerly writing crappy programs" at a university alternative @holbertonschool in SF. Check us out!

          0 replies 0 retweets 6 likes
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        2. Daniel Crabtree‏ @DanielCrabtree 21 Apr 2017
          Replying to @paulg

          The beauty with technical debt is that when an idea fails, you don't have to repay the debt.

          1 reply 1 retweet 2 likes
        3. 1 more reply
        1. Nick Walker‏ @nw3 21 Apr 2017
          Replying to @paulg

          A naturally smart coder can write a successful indebted code (circa 2004 FB in php) but an average coder might need fundamentals.

          0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
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        2. Nitin Borwankar‏ @nitin 22 Apr 2017
          Replying to @paulg

          probably because computer programming was initially driven by military and space concerns? where crap doesn't fly, literally.

          2 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
        3. Matt McClure‏ @matthewlmcclure 22 Apr 2017
          Replying to @nitin @paulg

          Interesting theory. Alternative theory: the cost of bugs was initially very high because programmers had to wait hours ...

          3 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
        4. Nitin Borwankar‏ @nitin 22 Apr 2017
          Replying to @matthewlmcclure @paulg

          Not a theory. History. Bletchley Park. Los Alamos. JPL.

          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        5. Matt McClure‏ @matthewlmcclure 22 Apr 2017
          Replying to @nitin @paulg

          yes. I wasn't challenging that. I was questioning the causal relationship between military origins and avoidance of Ted debt

          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        6. Nitin Borwankar‏ @nitin 22 Apr 2017
          Replying to @matthewlmcclure @paulg

          they are both the same point. If things will blow up you can't allow errors to accumulate.

          0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
        7. End of conversation

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