moiram%tekcae.cax.tek.com@RELAY.CS.NET (Moira Mallison) (11/04/88)
Miriam made a remark in a recent article about inherent capabilities with respect to the ease of learning to program / solve problems / reason. I thought, when I read the article, that it was time to trundle out my own tale, which I think provides a significant counter-example to the common "some people have it, some people don't" theory. I enrolled in a FORTRAN class in my sophomore year at college (1970), at the suggestion of the systems analyst in the office where I was a work-study worker. The syntax came easily, but I never could figure out how to take a problem statement and turn it into those funny little boxes and arrows. I eventually dropped the class in total frustration. I quit school at the end of the year, and went to seek my fortune in the big City, which necessitated supporting myself with a variety of clerical jobs, at the same time I was trying to break into technical theater. After several years of going back and forth, I burned out on theater, and decided to seek a REAL career, and returned to college in Business Administration. The first class I took was Computers and Management, which included some programming in BASIC. I enjoyed it so much, I changed my major to CS. I love the problem solving aspect of my career, and I excell at it. (The systems analyst, who had become Director of Academic Computing Services, was heard to remark, "she must have had the reverse of a pre-frontal lobotomy" :-). So, what happened? In my various clerical positions, I learned how to solve problems. Maybe the "real-world" problems were more interesting as learning exercises. Maybe I was gradually exposed to problems of increasing difficulty as I was ready for them, and so I was always successful. In the business environment, the emphasis was on the problem getting solved. When I got "stuck" the appropriate thing to do was to ask for help, not tough it out on my own. Moira Mallison