Why Johnny Can't Code Good
summary
Claims that training and publishing are broken and that many programmers only know enough to finish tickets, not to innovate. Evidence: 30–40 applicants only two completed a one-hour homework; ecosystems that favor zero-to-blog optimization (Node, Go) over maintainable abstractions; rare upstreamed patches and poor on‑the‑job training. Concrete fixes proposed: teach reading code, use IRC‑style coached exercises, require practice projects (implement a tiny DB or SQL clone), and read the library code rather than relying on copy‑paste docs.
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chapters (22)
- 0:00Intro
- 0:35WHY JOHNNY CAN'T CODE CHRIS ALLEN
- 2:57WHO'S JOHNNY?
- 8:06EXTREME TIME PREFERENCE
- 9:06CAN'T HIRE OUT OF THIS PROBLEM
- 12:23HIRE ONLY THE BEST
- 15:13WHAT WE'RE UNWILLING TO ADMIT
- 17:18CODERS DON'T KNOW HOW TO LEARN
- 21:00TEACHING IS A SKILL
- 23:15TEACHING: TOPICS
- 27:28TEACHING: TIME
- 28:41SOFTWARE IS BAD AT WRITING
- 31:47PROGRAMMERS ARE LITERATE BUT CAN'T REALLY READ
- 35:11EMPLOYERS AREN'T DOING THEIR PART
- 37:07TRAINING MAKES BUSINESS SENSE!
- 38:41COMPANY INCENTIVES
- 40:05TRAINING AS CULTURE
- 40:59ANTHONY GRAFTON
- 42:29PROGRAMMERS ARE ILLITERATE
- 43:12LEARNING TO READ CODE
- 44:16MAKE A MESS, CLEAN IT UP!
- 45:31DON'T TRAIN HOW YOU PLAY
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