If we can dispel the delusion that learning about computers should be an activity of fiddling with array indexes and worrying whether X is an integer or a real number, we can begin to focus on programming as a source of ideas.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of understanding programming beyond technical details, focusing instead on the creativity it fosters.
Hal Abelson's quote highlights the misconception that learning programming solely revolves around technical intricacies like data types and syntax. He suggests that once we move past these superficial aspects, we can embrace programming as an avenue for creative thinking and idea generation, which is far more valuable and enriching.
In practice
In a tech workshop, to encourage participants to think creatively, one might say, 'As Hal Abelson noted, let's focus on the ideas programming can inspire, not just the code itself.'
First, we want to establish the idea that a computer language is not just a way of getting a computer to perform operations but rather that it is a novel formal medium for expressing ideas about methodology. Thus, programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute.
Time passed solely in the pursuit of pleasure leaves no solid enjoyment for the future; but from the hours you spend in reading and studying useful books, you will gather a golden harvest in future years.
I can't pass a bookstore without slipping inside, looking for the next book that will burn my hand when I touch its jacket, or hand me over a promissory note of such immense power that it contains the formula that will change everything about me.
It's true that, in Iran, women have half of the rights men do. And yet 66 per cent of students are women.
If I read a book that impresses me, I have to take myself firmly by the hand, before I mix with other people; otherwise they would think my mind rather queer.
A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.
Read to your children all of the time_x000D_ Novels and nursery rhymes_x000D_ Autobiographies, even the newspaper_x000D_ It doesn't mater; it's quality time_x000D_ Because once upon a time _x000D_ We grew up on stories in the voices in which they were told _x000D_ We need words to hold us and the world to behold us _x000D_ For us to truly know our souls
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