Dream It. Code It. Win It.

Comments (Archived):

1. It would be interesting if high school teams could win the money in scholarships.

   1. I think it’s not allowed, legally.

2. Hi FredGreat drive for cultural change.Having a 13 year old girl in my extended family makes me think of three things:-she’s amazingly web and tech savvy, not at all inclined to program. Real gap.-nothing bridges these gaps like positioning. Without being trite, finding the heart and coolness for a teenage audience (girls or boys) is not to be under thought.-nothing drives identification and change like heroes from within their own groups. X games marketing, creating heroes from super niche groups was brilliant. And I think instructive to what you are doing.Off the cuff, partially caffeinated thoughts.

   1. Why not just let her pursue what she’s interested in and support her in that? It’s one thing to give support and encouragement to girls who are interested in programming, but this obsession with getting kids to do stuff they aren’t interested seems pointless (or maybe not, as a cynical blogger suggests).

      1. I didn’t say I was pushing her–I’m not.An observation that is real though.Access and pushing are two different things in my mind. And I do think that creating heroes and role models is not but its positive generally.

         1. It is critical.

            1. If there was a link that showed ‘cool things that girls had made’, that is a place to start.

            2. I’m part of a group that’s discussing this issue, and this is the direction we’re thinking in. Glad to have this affirmed, thank you.And not just what did girls make, but what are the cool things you’re interested in that you can make with technology?

            3. What is this group? [Hi, Anne!]

            4. More off line, heading out (metaphorically) for the day!

            5. Cool.I’m not an expert on this demographic but I am in figuring out how to drive change naturally through community hero creation and understanding group dynamics.My gut tells me this is one way that will drive traction.People follow leaders. Sometimes you need to surface those leaders and give them the spotlight.

            6. see comment to Arnold re 3D printed kitchen ware…

            7. Yes! Girls are makers. It’s just a matter of encouraging them to approach programming their own way, not the way a boy would.

            8. Thinking back to my earlier comment about the proliferation of women as systems analysts in the 80s and as product managers today, it’s not necessarily that women aren’t interested in tech, it’s about what you do with tech. (I am hesitant about generalizing my experience but I know there is something to this.)

            9. That is exactly what happened with me. Every time I tried to focus more on learning code, I’d get pulled into a product role.

            10. Because of your skills?

            11. Good question! Working in startups since ’96, I just naturally gravitated to it. There was always a job for me in that role, so I never got around to becoming a full-fledged dev. But I always dabbled in dev.

         2. Push and pull are so different, and you are defining role models as pull.My daughter loves superhero movies to define skills and gadgets she wants. I of course want Jarvis from Iron Man.Mentioned to @MsPseudolus:disqus that pantherkitty brought home her 3D mug. After she announced her children will all have 3D printed utensils and tableware. I love how she feels this confidence to make that happen.

            1. Nicely said.To me, pull is always the preferred state.Being pushed towards anything creates friction, being pulled is social gravity–as things should be.In each and every thing I’ve loved and pursued in life there has been a hero that pulled me, that created the first step.Gravity is undeniable.

            2. GRAVITY IS SEDUCTION.

            3. I think my next project is to create an incredible female superhero that both girls and boys can love.

            4. Lynda Carter, WonderWoman.

            5. Ha! Well, I think she’s one that boys can love 😉 I don’t know a lot of women who ever got heavy into her.I think about this a lot, though. Some day, I’ll put together an amazing team to make it happen!

      2. yeah….but…My kids don’t like to do homework, but I push them to.There are certain things – certain skills – that everyone should be exposed to independent of their individual degree of interest.

         1. I was just re-reading the blog post I linked to, and it quotes an NYT article saying 37% of CS degrees were earned by women in 1985 versus 17% in 2010. Seems to be a lot more programs geared toward getting girls to code today than there were back then.

            1. I’ve heard stats like that and I wonder why…what happened?

            2. Maybe newer programming languages are of less interest to females? Maybe young women were less interested in competing against a wave of H1-Bs? I don’t know.

            3. Primary and secondary curricula have seen radical transformation since 1985. The number of students taking higher mathematics has steadily declined; the the number of girls at a significantly higher clip than boys.There are a number of theories as to why. Most centre around the peer effects and the nature of the expanded curriculum.

            4. Hmm… seems like they broke math edu?

            5. So badly it beggars belief.

            6. What happened to the women who got those degrees?(Edited — and I don’t mean, Jim, tell me what happened! Does anyone know any of these women? I actually do know one…)

            7. Good question

            8. Yep, I know plenty. I also know quite a few currently pursuing their PhD.

            9. All you had to do was pick up a computing magazine during the last 17 years to understand (it’s gotten better recently). All the ads, images, etc. sent a message: “here be dragons” (aka sex-crazed brogrammers).

            10. Well if my early career experience in a STEM field is any indication, it’s also about what happened at the office. On so many levels.If I didn’t have to leave now, I could stay, chat more…and maybe I could check “get called a crybaby” off my to-do list. Like the last time I was around here when the discussion started to take this turn. (If it’s on your list, @Kirsten Lambertsen:disqus, and you’ve got time…)D’oh. Off to work!

            11. We will pick this up IRL soon, sista 🙂

            12. Ugh

            13. The “springsteen is springsteen because he wasn’t popular” and had all the time in the world to nurse the guitar.If you believe that in order to get good at programming (or music) you have to spend many hours in isolation by yourself and not with others there are certainly groups of people that would be more likely to do that. This wouldn’t include guys who were good at sports (as a group), guys who were popular and could get girls and so on. I wasn’t particularly social and liked doing things on my own so it was fine to spend hours and hours in my basement doing photography or waxing cars or tinkering and taking things apart.Consequently there probably isn’t an analogous group of girls that would sit all day and fool with a computer even if they had the opportunity. (And note also that there aren’t as many women musicians are there as there are men? Perhaps there is a brain reason for that but I think it’s more than that and as a result of the way girls interact with girls).

            14. In the 80s I wrote job descriptions and determined pay levels and was assigned to do all the IT related jobs. Only a few women worked in computer operations or programming but there were quite a number who were “systems analysts.” Jump forward: In recruiting for product managers or even a Head of Product I have no shortage of female candidates but that changes drastically when searching for an engineer. Anecdotal, yes, but I think there is something to this.

         2. I so remember this when raising my boy.

            1. I learned something new about you. You’re a daddy. Nice.

            2. Yeah I actually learned that with Arnold within the last month or so based on a comment. (I think his son was getting married).

            3. Lotsa nachus @awaldstein:disqus

      3. I think those of us who are interested in this feel that what we’re doing is trying to counteract the *discouragement* that is out there, culturally, *preventing* girls from doing what they’re interested in.

         1. The “discouragement” is a red herring, since:1) There is much more encouragement for females to pursue programming today.2) More than twice as many CS degrees went to women ~30 years ago, when there was much less encouragement.It’s like you cling to this explanation because the more parsimonious and likely explanation — that fewer women and girls are interested in programming — is unacceptable to you.

            1. Well, you ought to know being a man and all. There’s really nothing to prove either of your points. Nor your third one.

            2. I ought to know, not because I’m a man, but because I am aware of reality. The reality is that there is plenty of encouragement for girls to get into CS and STEM in general now. In addition to Fred, who is one of the most prominent venture capitalists in tech, and in addition to the companies he mentioned in this post (including Goldman Sachs, a fairly prominent Wall Street firm), what other prominent individuals, companies, or institutions encourage young women to get into computers (along with other STEM fields)?Google does: http://googleblog.blogspot.com…The US department of education does: http://dww.ed.gov/Encouraging-…The White House does: http://m.whitehouse.gov/admini…Microsoft does: http://www.wileurope.org/artic…Exxon Mobil does: http://news.exxonmobil.com/pre…The Girl Scouts do: http://www.girlscouts.org/prog…The Saban Center does: http://www.chla.org/site/apps/…As does billionaire Cheryl Saban personally. And so on.Now, were there as many prominent individuals, initiatives, and organizations working to get females into programming in 1985, when more than twice as many women were getting CS degrees? No (if you disagree, perhaps you can provide some evidence to support your claim?). Ergo, the reason why there are fewer females in programming today is not because there is less encouragement now.

            3. The efforts of these organizations are in response to the environment that has developed since the 70’s – an environment that subtly but powerfully discourages girls from getting into STEM. So thank you for demonstrating my point for me.I don’t have to justify my experience as a female in tech and as the mother of a daughter to anyone. I hear and understand you, and I disagree with you.

            4. STEM is too broad of a brush as the phenomenon is field specific. e.g. you’ll struggle to find a biology, statistics, etc… registrar concerned about the participation rate.

            5. Fair point, Cam.

            6. Corporate “mentoring” programs have been around since at least the 80s. If they worked, more than 4% of F500 CEOs would be female.

      4. Why not just let her pursue what she’s interested in and support her in that?Part of it is wanting to live vicariously through another person. I do this as well. I’d love to push my kids and step kids selfishly into something that I find of interest or importance!Then we can talk about things and I can help them and feel good doing so!It’s really like the “stage mom” thing going on. Along the way you rationalize that you are doing it because it is best for them. But there are parts where even if the reason you are doing it is self serving that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a good path to pursue.My dad tried in vain to not get my sister to pursue a career in art.

   2. Those are exactly some of the things that were discussed last night

      1. Then it was good that they have the ultimate marketer as part of the team Fred!

   3. I wish Fred posted at night once in awhile so we could enjoy your Syrah induced comments!

      1. Actually last night i was tasting an under the radar natural Gamay from Beaujolais and a bit whacked out but really interesting Napa/Red Hook winemaker’s white.

         1. had a beaujolais with some roast chicken the other night…wonderful

            1. I’m a big fan of Beaujolais. In some ways, the beginning of the natural wine movement in Europe started there with the gang of four, just bucking all the BS and starting to work organically and make just great Gamay.Round, luscious, interesting wine.

3. i’m guessing that the majority of boys have little interest in coding. coding is a niche, and i’m not convinced its defining characteristic is gender based.

   1. This is interesting.But they may need to be marketed to differently as they are different markets. Althletics is a good analog.

      1. yes, coding is a means to many ends, and those many ends need packaging and highlighting to appeal.

         1. Exactly.

      2. “But they may need to be marketed to differently”As a boy (at least before the sex change operation) I can attest to the fact that things of this nature (mechanical, computers, money, breasts) were always of interest to me. Since I can remember.My guess is that there is imprinting (nurture) as well as nature going on at some stage in development that makes this happen pretty predictably in certain people.I think if you are on the dartboard the proper imprinting can make you like a particular thing. [1] For example I was never imprinted with the love of sports and that combined with the fact that I am not really of the stature that I would be good at it makes it a total “game over” for me. I’m not on the dartboard. (There are ways to get beyond the imprinting which might be reinforcement so if I was 7 feet tall and could sink baskets I might end up really liking sports..) And of course there are things other than imprinting that’s one small part (and I’m not even sure if that is the proper phrase for the concept either..)Above is for sure a simplistic short example. I have given much thought to this and wish I had the time to write more about it.[1] For example if someone is your neighbor (you Arnold) and really likes and respects you it’s quite possible that your love of wine will transfer to them.

         1. I am absolutely certain that being a neighbor to me who enjoys wine is a good situation for them!

   2. How are you Jason?

      1. still here 🙂 I’ll be seeing my neurologist again in a couple of weeks. I had another scan last week. it was a Tesla 3 machine. that’s all they could be bothered to tell me. i’m going to ask for copies of my scans – i might frame them on my wall.

         1. Didn’t know. Hope you are okay. Don’t let them remove any of your wit.

            1. one or two problems, and a bit of a game of medical ping pong with that profession, but we’re getting there.i’ve hidden it in a box buried in the garden. they’ll never find it.

            2. Is this serious? If you’d rather not respond in the comments I’m at dwhite AT bwasearch — but don’t feel like you have to respond.

         2. 3T is definitely a better machine than 1T or 1.5T … but I can’t comment whether that helps your situation. After all they do (both the machine and human) what they can do….

            1. i don’t enjoy the enclosed tunnel bit (I have to put on an eye mask before they slide me in so i don’t panic), and they are RATHER NOISY!!!, but it’s a clever invention.

            2. Be well. Praying for you.

   3. That’s a good point. My AP Computer Science class in high school was all boys, but there were only four of us.

4. How do they keep these from being like the old Science Fair projects…..where the kid with the most “engaged” engineer for a dad always blew everyone else away?”Neat model of the solar system Sally….now let’s take a look at Johnny’s fully functional cold-fusion perpetual motion wind-turbine …”EDIT: to be clear I am not “shooting down” this event! I think it’s great. I just know that for me as a kid it was discouraging to “compete” against other kids who had parents OBVIOUSLY doing most of the work. It did the opposite of encouraging me to participate in something I normally wouldn’t…. and I would hate to see the same thing happen in these kinds of events.Is there a way to do these competitions in a manner that puts the work/effort on display (as sports and other live competitions do) as much as the outcome?

   1. Sour grapes after all these years Andy? Let it go bro.

      1. My kids would enter with Fortran.

         1. Ha! In a coffee shop the other day I overheard someone use the words COBOL and mainframe in a sentence and had a nostalgic moment.

            1. They’re were probably counting their money. None of the cool kids want any part of maintaining those systems, and yet they’re everywhere.

         2. Cobol on punch cards… “Just find a deck reader, Jr!”

            1. My Uncle Harrison recently got Infiniti Q50 Sedan from onlyworkin part time on a home computer… go to this website G­a­i­n­s­p­o­s­t­.­ℂ­o­m

      2. Ha no I knew mine sucked!

         1. Seriously, tho, now-a-days the kids just search the interwebs for project ideas. Don’t need an engineer daddy.

            1. File under you can only be as honest as your competition.An engineer daddy most certainly helps. Even if he hasn’t helped you with the project if you pay attention growing up to what he says and learn from it you can fill in many knowledge gaps that others have to actually think about and will slow them down.Same with growing up in a business family.

            2. “can only be as honest as your competition.” … such a slippery slope, eh? And, yes… my GF also has an advantage whenever her classes require her to learn a new software platform. Though she does disclose that I’ve helped her.

            3. “”can only be as honest as your competition.””I harp on this many times. Reason why kids need performance enhancing drugs now. It’s the natural evolution of any group of people vying for limited rewards or resources. I see this pattern frequently.

            4. True that.

   2. My dad was a science teacher so I was one of those kids Andy!

   3. Unfortunately, these things will happen in any school project, not just old Science Fair. You have to take the good with the bad.I have to address my robot team today (weather pending) regarding true strategy and how to look at what the winners did to win.

   4. Unfortunately, these things will happen in any school project, not just old Science Fair. You have to take the good with the bad.I have to address my robot team today (weather pending) regarding true strategy and how to look at what the winners did to win.

   5. where the kid with the most “engaged” engineer for a dadI think that’s a great point. The discouragement factor. Part of the downside to this type of thing. [1]This is similar to when I was in high school and the kids who were super smart and doing super smart kid things always made you feel that you didn’t stand a chance to ever be in their league. (Probably a sports analogy for this as well.) (School of course is really really good at highlighting and rewarding these kids since it’s all structured to reward what they are good at.)The brainiacs almost certainly discouraged many kids from pursuing certain careers. Because the bar was set.Not that I ever wanted to be a doctor but the best example of this is a few particular kids in high school who were totally over the top (and became top doctors at academic medical centers). So they really set the bar I’m sure for many who could have done that but simply weren’t in their league. “I’m not that smart” many probably said.Later of course when you go out in the world you realize that everyone who is in a particular career isn’t anywhere near as smart as the kid who set the standard that you knew in high school. [2] That may have discouraged you from doing the same thing.[1] File under “life isn’t always fair”.[2] True story. I once dated a girl who was top of her medical school class, was school valedictorian, won almost all the awards, but she didn’t know you shouldn’t heat a pizza in an oven if it was still in the pizza box. She hadn’t specifically learned that concept “paper will burn” (was like “Star Man” movie with Jeff Bridges). She would do what I considered stupid things like that all the time. Had really little street smarts and judgement.

   6. Andy, This is the first time I hear you shoot down something that’s grass roots/bottoms-up and where the government is NOT involved 🙂

      1. I’m not shooting it down I’m just wondering how they ensure that the kids are doing the work. Could be as simple as “explain these [random] lines of code” for all I know.To me, when prizes get involved and other kids have FAR more help, you’re doing a disservice to the kids you actually want to encourage. That was my only point. I think the event itself is really cool.

         1. Got it.

   7. I’m still looking for a truly fair playing field…in just about anything. It’s a rather illusive reality. Speaking of which… if any of you are in the mood for intellectual entertainment, have a listen to how Tom Stoppard covered moral philosophy in “Darkside – A play by Sir Tom Stoppard featuring Darkside of the Moon by Pink Floyd” … non-commercial link for your convenience > http://jimcanto.com/darksid… < You may even learn the meaning of life. B-)

      1. Math competitions were fair playing fields. Football, basketball.When the effort and “work” takes place on a visible playing field for all to see, it brings out healthy and honest competition. When only the results are displayed….

         1. When we all can see everything on a visible playing field, I agree, it does promote honest competition. Enter performance enhancing drugs. I know I sound VERY cynical. Just trying to be truthful.

         2. not sure it would be fair if you took me down low….but I have sharp elbows

   8. I love your frustration …. that is one f…king inspiration for most of the innovators …good luck.

5. One interesting item: was talking with a whiz kid programmer the other day. He tutors younger CS students at his college. He observes that girls often have developed a learning style (copious note-taking) that isn’t optimal for CS classes. When he works with them on this, he sees them do much better and have more fun.

   1. I was amazed in HS/college at how much girls would just try to transcribe what the teacher was saying. PAGES of notes from one class!I’m like…. why don’t you just listen and learn?

      1. Well on the positive side writing helps with learning. (And it’s also a displacement activity). I tend to always take notes in order to visualize and I learn from it. Writing (at least in my case) helps greatly I have found. Others may do it for other reasons of course.Anyway the truth is that this is one of those skills (programming) that you have to do to learn (at least from my experience). Same as with sex.You set out to solve a problem and you work toward the solution learning all the way. So in other words you fork and solve different problems you encounter (“why didn’t that regex work”) and that is how you really learn. [2] Similar to many other things (medicine is probably another example). In trying to solve a problem the info is just hammered in in an unforgettable way.It’s really hard to rote learn everything in advance so it’s better to just learn the concepts [2] and then actually go about building something and learn as you go along.[1] I’ve spent hours and hours over a single fork trying to figure something out. It’s both fun and the best way to learn I’ve found.[2] My best example of learning concepts rather than memorizing steps is the washer dryer example that I often give. If you simply learn steps you will always put the clothes in the dryer after the washer. But if you understand that the purpose of the dryer is to take the water out of the clothes you will realize you don’t have to do that step if the clothes are already dry. [3][3] Although you might do so to fluff them up of course.

         1. Please tell me you didn’t take notes during sex.

            1. Ha!

            2. Sex was mentioned in the paragraph “learn by doing”.Anything that I am good at I learned by doing and adjusting on the fly by the feedback and reinforcement. God if you only knew.

      2. I don’t know about other girls but that was part of learning for me. Listening has to be active or I lose a lot of what I hear. Or maybe I’m ADD.

         1. As I said to Andy, I rarely actually read my notes. It was the process of writing that helped me learn the material. But in the case of learning programming, I think it could indeed be a hindrance.

            1. I think rewriting the notes is where you find out a lot of what you got.

      3. That was his take on it, too. I’m a note taker. And I rarely go back and read my notes. So why take them? Because I am an auditory and kinesthetic learner. Looking at the speaker can actually distract me from what they’re saying. Writing notes helps me get what I’m hearing into my body.Nonetheless, I think a lot of people do want to be able to rely on their notes for later. And my friend’s point is that it’s hard to write code from your notes.Personally, I think all CS 101 classes should just be to go through every course on Codecademy. (My friend agrees.)

         1. My daughter asked to download Codecademy app the other day. After she brought home her 3D printed mug she made, which was shown around the teachers. #happymom

            1. Awesome!!! One thing that I think we both know is that our kids watch what we do much more than they listen to what we say. Your daughter has been watching 🙂

            2. test

6. Coding for Unicef <- Trick or Treat for Unicef

7. .One more light in the thousand points of light that can illuminate a better future for everyone.It would be interesting to see if this training approach could also be taken to unemployment in our country.JLM.

   1. when there is light people get envisioned …whether it is one of those thousands or one in a million …. let us lite some light or as my old Prof says ….let us throw some light….let some one get to see …

8. I have seen lots of programs like this over time targeting students . . . particularly encouraging girls to code. Perhaps what is needed is a program that targets the long-term unemployed . . . particularly those who are at the other end of the age spectrum.

9. So much innovation going on to incentivize women/girls into tech. I’m seeing programs, conferences and events everywhere. It’s the right thing to do.

10. Forwarding to my son starting his second semester as a comp sci major.My daughter would be more likely to do this as part of a team where she was doing the dreaming and planning part and someone else was doing the coding part which might eventually lead to learning to code. As a means to an end.For boys and girls this is a good direction. Putting coding into a larger perspective. Making. Creating.

11. targeted at the universe but as focused as a laser at the target … you fred is so amazing….Let us focus on what we can do rather than pointing fingers …I am inspired….

12. When I need serious informed advice about a crucial UX / usability issue that we are developing, I usually turn to my 17 year old boy and 11 year old daughter, together they have probably played and tested over 1000 games and hundreds of educational & social or just plain indescribable apps… (they are voracious). Their reference points are innumerable, their understanding of the field and of a variety of usability conventions is beyond my comprehension. ~ But they in turn are reminded by me constantly of the importance of not just being a consumer, but to feel empowered to create their own little masterpieces, and they nod with approval every time my developers and I make some break-through leap, and enable a previously non-existent ‘wow’ type functionality. i.e. they make my job easier, and I make it easier for them to know that they too can create their own destiny.

    1. Bravo, @Simon Edhouse:disqus .. that must be both fun to witness and to actually be a part of. Very cool.

    2. As we have been designing and coding for iPad my 12 yr old girl has been trying and deleting many apps. I think I’ll pay her a dollar per review.

       1. Better yet, hire her out as a beta tester. 😉

          1. How much? 😉

    3. This is really cool. They are also being empowered to be “critical users” which I think is just as important these days as being “critical readers.”

13. I love the effort to have girls get back to their tech roots, which are maker roots, which goes back to what was considered Home Ec and removed for sexism.Which seems sort of stupid now no? Knitting and crochet are really coding, sewing is pattern making and construction. Cooking is chemistry. Some girls liked wood shop too. Schools pulled all these maker 3D skills from women because everyone thought it was too Betty Crocker and 50’s, and not Modern Woman. Maybe the teachers were the problem, maybe they were too old fashioned. However, we threw the baby out with the bath water.But now there are ton’s of cool maker girls and women, and we are struggling to put this all back in to get female 3D codey kinds of activity jumpstarted again.

    1. Yes. The discontinuation of Home Ec — for boys and girls — might relate to the trajectory we’re on with obesity and diabetes. If Cynthia were here today, she might also chime in on how little we know about the quality of the “fast fashion” out there.As a teenager I wouldn’t have been caught dead in Home Ec. (To the argument elsewhere to let kids follow their interest. True to a point. We don’t always know what’s good for us.)That said, I was fortunate to have spent hundreds of after school hours with our Home Ec teacher, making period costumes for a play. Mrs. Holzkopf taught us some really refined techniques to alter patterns. I practiced them because I wanted to pick up a Vogue or Seventeen, and then make what I saw there. (The same motivation that might inspire a young woman to decide to learn to code.)Related, and I’ve mentioned it here before, there’s an interesting book called *Shop Class as Soulcraft* by a guy who discusses the death of the shop class, in a similar vein. Worth reading.

       1. Me, too. I wasn’t going to be somebody’s “Homemaker.” But I might have been interested if it had been titled, “Fashion Design” or “French Cooking.” You didn’t want to ‘make a home’ but you were interested in making costumes.

          1. I can’t figure out how I got recruited for that job. It was awesome, though. I should track down Mrs. Holzkopf and thank her.

       2. We had no Home Ec at girls school, and sadly I wished I had more making in school.I learned to sew later on, and wished I’d had a great teacher growing up. In fact, I barely knew anyone who sewed.#pendulumswingstoofareachtime

          1. Sewing was not about homemaking traditionally of course.My grandfather was a tailor, worked in the garment district on a machine and consequently, did all the sewing in our home.

             1. In the history of the American midwest, and westward migration, sewing actually was about homemaking, in the absolute sense.People made clothing (flour sack dresses!), linens, etc. and also had to know how to fix things themselves. Tailors were an urban resource, probably not so frequently seen in small town and rural America.

             2. I stand corrected.I didn’t realize that there was life west of the Hudson 😉

             3. Heh heh. It’s funny how our backgrounds enter the picture.Sewing was so handed down in midwestern culture that in high school it was a cool kid thing to know how to do.As an adult here in NYC — late 80s, early 90s — another friend (Hoosier) and I took weekend time from clawing our way up the corporate ladder to sew bridesmaids dresses for a college friend’s wedding. We had both (of course!) migrated eastward with our sewing machines.

          2. #bornamidwesterner

    2. I’m always telling people that sewing is a lot like coding. Especially if you make your own patterns. And of course, you’re so right about cooking. We should just call these classes Gastronomic Chemistry and Apparel Engineering 😉

       1. Cooking is art with food.

       2. And a knitting pattern really is code.

14. A couple thoughts:1. It is natural to optimize for what we’re good at and for things where we get to be around people we enjoy.2. In undergrad and law school professors mattered much more than the subject matter. Many fellow law students were pulled into the world of tax law because my law school had superb law faculty. I ended up taking tons of economics and history courses in undergrad because the faculty was good.3. Like it or not the “geek” culture is not always the most welcoming. Many are working to change that but I’m sure it turns a non-zero number of people off from the professions that surround it.

15. I’m feeling old – I don’t know any of these…

16. This is fantastic. I think we should be promoting software development rather than traditional university for young people. Practical and sets these young people up to change the world.www.indievestments.com