“Consider the instant gratification of seeing “hello, world” on the screen; it’s nearly the easiest possible way to “make” things”
Chachra et al. “Why I Am Not a Maker” in The Atlantic.
Why did this particular passage grab your attention?
This passage grabbed my attention because of how right and how wrong the author’s take was on coding. The author is right that coding is prominently done by men and that coders tend to get bonuses that community management workers do not. However, the author is wrong about the difficulty and importance of coding. Without a website/app, what would community managers manage? In no way am I trying to discredit the work of community managers, but it seems silly for the author to try and make that comparison. Sure, coding “Hello World” is easy, but it is not a fair example. Instead of trying to describe how hard coding is I’m going to make a list of the coding-related things that the author probably used to make and share this article with us: Word Processor, Spell/Grammer check, Email, Website, Wifi, etc. It’s short sighted to diss the people who created the services the author is using to share their opinions.
What elements of your past experiences, current interests, or future plans did it kindle?
I think my experiences shaped my reaction to this article and the quote above. Before coming to Carleton I learned to code on Youtube and made some fun projects, at Carleton I have taken two CS classes, and in the future, I may major in CS. In general, I am also just a technology “appreciater” so the author’s comment about coding really kindled my thoughts.
Under the large umbrella of Digital (Arts &) Humanities, which areas of inquiry, methods or techniques are you most eager to pursue this term and why?
I am most excited to learn about the different ways to visualize data and I am excited to learn how to use 3d modeling software. I think 3d printing is very cool so learning how to use 3d modeling software will allow me to explore that hobby even further. Data visualization has always intrigued me, I especially liked what we did on the first day with DataBasic.io and Voyant!
