For some reason this reminds me of the movie Ratatouille, and the "Anyone can cook" theme.
For those who haven't (and won't) seen the movie, one of the themes (as I see it) is based around two different interpretations of the phrase "Anyone can cook"
1) The looser interpretation that upsets the "ultimate food critic" would be better phrased as "everyone can cook"
2) The interpretation that the movie guides us to (not quite as heavy handed as I'm phrasing it!) is that a cook can come from any background, we shouldn't think that the best cooks can only be found in the trappings of a well respected multi-Michelin-star restaurant kitchen.
The parallel for coding seems obvious to me, we often have very preconceived notions of what it takes to be a "coder", what background, personality type, etc. and we should reject that. The "suits vs. nerds" concept is a form of deception, because it leads us to think that "coders" must be "nerds" and "suits" can never be "coders", neither of which are true.
We should judge people by their ability and capability, not by the fashionable trappings with which they drape themselves; often suits, or nerdy/geekish behavior is merely a social camouflage with no deep correspondence to skill set.
I think your point is pretty hard to argue with but it doesn't have much bearing on the original point; not everybody can be a programmer.
Yeah a programmer can be a hipster douchebag, a Star Trek loving nerd with Asperger's or a stay at home mom. But not everyone will ever be able to do it.
PS - I love Ratatouille.
EDIT:
To clarify further; anybody CAN have aptitude for programming, but not everybody DOES.
For those who haven't (and won't) seen the movie, one of the themes (as I see it) is based around two different interpretations of the phrase "Anyone can cook"
1) The looser interpretation that upsets the "ultimate food critic" would be better phrased as "everyone can cook"
2) The interpretation that the movie guides us to (not quite as heavy handed as I'm phrasing it!) is that a cook can come from any background, we shouldn't think that the best cooks can only be found in the trappings of a well respected multi-Michelin-star restaurant kitchen.
The parallel for coding seems obvious to me, we often have very preconceived notions of what it takes to be a "coder", what background, personality type, etc. and we should reject that. The "suits vs. nerds" concept is a form of deception, because it leads us to think that "coders" must be "nerds" and "suits" can never be "coders", neither of which are true.
We should judge people by their ability and capability, not by the fashionable trappings with which they drape themselves; often suits, or nerdy/geekish behavior is merely a social camouflage with no deep correspondence to skill set.
Just my 5c