Yeah but isn't that study already telling? They're saying that if you are already familiar with the idea that a computer system has to be perfectly consistent, then programming makes sense to you. (Also, I think they had issues replicating this.)
Anyway, it doesn't say that this is an innate quality. So perhaps they are measuring the gaps in how we educate people.
And here's yet another one which shows percentage of degrees conferred to women. Note how weird the graph is for CS, and it doesn't track fields which you might think would indicate innate talent, like math and statistics, or physics.
What is the explanation here? Coding was way harder and more mathematical before the advent of high level languages and yet the participation of women crashes right around 1982. I suspect that this is just the most obvious effect; we've probably been turning off men who would have been perfectly competent as well.
Ask yourself what the more reasonable hypothesis is:
- Computer programming is unique among all technical skills, in that talent predominates over education, to a higher degree than medicine, or even mathematics.
- Something is wrong in how we teach computer programming, and it might be related to the introduction of the personal computer.
Anyway, it doesn't say that this is an innate quality. So perhaps they are measuring the gaps in how we educate people.
If you want another graph, look at this one:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/10/17/356944145/episode-...
And here's yet another one which shows percentage of degrees conferred to women. Note how weird the graph is for CS, and it doesn't track fields which you might think would indicate innate talent, like math and statistics, or physics.
http://www.randalolson.com/2014/06/14/percentage-of-bachelor...
What is the explanation here? Coding was way harder and more mathematical before the advent of high level languages and yet the participation of women crashes right around 1982. I suspect that this is just the most obvious effect; we've probably been turning off men who would have been perfectly competent as well.
Ask yourself what the more reasonable hypothesis is:
- Computer programming is unique among all technical skills, in that talent predominates over education, to a higher degree than medicine, or even mathematics.
- Something is wrong in how we teach computer programming, and it might be related to the introduction of the personal computer.