[comp.society.women] inherent abilities

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