Marco Rogers

I think the initial sentiment that it will be easier to learn if you know what you want to make is true, in the sense that you'll have more focused learning and it'll guide you on what you want to learn.

Nothing against learning to code without a project, it just might take longer because you don't have the same guiding path, but on the flip side you'll have a much broader coding knowledge, whereas project person knows how to do enough for that, but not much else.

A bit like how when you're in school, you're taught history or maths to pass a test. It's very focused. There's a load you're never taught.

I still remember my programming books as a kid, teaching you how to make a bunch of different apps - text readers, video players etc. That worked way better for me than just learning code. YMMV of course

We don’t think potential history students need to already have a graduate thesis topic to “guide their learning.” We don’t think potential lawyers need to already know what kind of cases they want to work on. We don’t think potential civil engineers need to know (etc)

No entirely fair, and I don't think people should have to here either. I do think it can help with learning (helped me a lot) but also that it has its downsides (as I said, it only teaches you some stuff, not very broad knowledge etc) and that of course it's not for everyone.

Having a project idea in mind is also a valid starting point - it’s when people assume it’s the _only_ valid starting point (which is what the original quoted tweet is assuming) that it becomes gatekeeping.

Well the original tweet just said it would be easier. Should have been 'may be easier', sure. But they didn't say it was the only way etc. I agree it can seem like gatekeeping that way though, yes.