Learning to code in Python was both a challenging and frustrating experience. It really showcased the gap between what computers seem to “do” in society and the economy at large and what they “are.” Another way of saying this s that I began to appreciate that the gap between an experienced computer user and power user is really a yawning chasm. Recent years of doing all my thinking and writing on computers has made me into the exact kind of human-computer symbiote we were discussing last week—I generally type in all lowercase, don’t need to spell words or use proper punctuation and don’t bother remembering or recording the exact names of things because I know auto correct or google suggestions will correct it for me. These habits may allow me to work faster and perhaps augment my thinking in various ways. Ironically however, these skillsets that the computer has encouraged me to develop made my coding instincts a complete disaster.

I kept getting stuck in the Python tutorial for the silliest reasons such as misspelling my variables and especially forget to capitalize “True” or punctuate things appropriately. As simple as it might sound, it took me awhile to really grasp the fact that this wonderful machine that corrects all of my spelling and punctuation errors (when running the appropriate software) at its core demands the highest level of accuracy and precision to interact with. Addressing this in the context of some of the parallels between literacy and coding leads to some interesting conclusions. The contemporary computer seems to be the most extreme example of a media that erases itself, or hides its true core. Introducing someone to the most “basic” ways of interacting with a computer like word processing or Google actually seems to dull or blunt the basic skills and instincts useful to programming. The Code Academy tutorials try to address this gap someone by including achievements that pop up periodically, making me feel a bit like I was playing another game on Steam.