Clinton could play the Saxophone, after that I am struggling to think of any politicians able to demonstrate a useful skill.
Programming might not be that hard to pick up if you had done it before, couldn't this code have been written on a 25 year old computer to compile with a Borland era compiler?
Because the wider population don't understand programming and see it as magic, I fully expect his popularity to do well, he is practically a hacker in their eyes, able to conjure up magic and demonstrate skill.
Vladimir Putin is a bona fide Judo expert. I guess it's debatable how 'useful' that is - just like playing the sax.
"Because the wider population don't understand programming and see it as magic, I fully expect his popularity to do well, he is practically a hacker in their eyes, able to conjure up magic and demonstrate skill."
The circle jerking in this thread rubs me the wrong way - "this guy must be awesome, he can pass a 1st year 'introduction to computer programming' class!". Must be the cognitive dissonance - there are people still saying Hans Reiser was surely framed, because how could a programmer be anything but God's gift to mankind?
Margeret Thatcher was a chemist. She's variously credited with inventing "raspberry ripple" icecream, or "Mr Whippy" soft-serve style icecream. (The last one is definitely not true, it was invented a long time before she started working).
>> "Because the wider population don't understand programming and see it as magic, I fully expect his popularity to do well, he is practically a hacker in their eyes, able to conjure up magic and demonstrate skill."
The general public don't think of you as some sort of magic hacker because you code for a living, sorry.
Manmohan Singh (former PM of India) was an economist par excellence. As the finance minister, he was responsible for the liberalization of the Indian economy and arguably responsible for the economic boom in the country today.
But his tenure as a Prime Minister is largely remembered for his missteps and his general nonchalance to everything that happened around him. His legacy was tarnished and now he is just remembered as a puppet PM.
So yeah, extra curricular skills and fancy degrees and academic credentials may not translate into a good leader of the country.
Many politicians are former lawyers and it seems to me like passing a bar exam is a pretty useful skill (more useful than playing the sax, even) if you're going to endeavor to make laws.
Programming might not be that hard to pick up if you had done it before, couldn't this code have been written on a 25 year old computer to compile with a Borland era compiler?
Because the wider population don't understand programming and see it as magic, I fully expect his popularity to do well, he is practically a hacker in their eyes, able to conjure up magic and demonstrate skill.