Paul GrahamVerified account

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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