Episode 004 - Computer Programming: Navigating The Learning Curve

This episode is a free wheeling discussion of the world of computer technology and information systems. My guest is my son Spencer Cousins. He has been helping me understand the arcane, byzantine, labyrinthine world of computer programming languages, coding, and the entire infrastructure and how it fits together.

 

My talks with Spencer have been incredible enlightening to me and have helped me get over some of the big humps in the learning curve. I really wanted to get him on the podcast because I think this information can be really valuable to lots of us and I wanted to have him share his knowledge and his great way of making these subjects clear and understandable.

 

There are so many competing systems and developments are happening so fast that I found it incredibly difficult to know where to begin learning, and what was most important and fundamental and how to prioritize.   The learning curve can be steep and initially almost impenetrable and these explanations have helped me immensely.

 

Our world is now so infused with technology and smartphones and the web and internet and computers and coding and programming that I have felt compelled to understand it all better. And I’m making a commitment to become a better and more well rounded coder. With some computer coding knowledge and skills we can make all kinds of cool things happen.

 

I have personally witnessed how Spencer’s journey and acquisitions of these skills has transformed his life and opportunities. To whatever extent we do the same we can all benefit.

 

Don’t get intimidated by all the jargon at first. Just let it flow over you and after a while some of the words and concepts will start to stick and you will start to peer into this incredible world.  We toss around a lot of jargon and I was initially going to put explanations in the show notes but it seemed too dense and plodding a way to make a glossary. The terms you don’t know you can just Google and get a quick explanation.

 

We talk about what are the best computer languages to learn for applications and for starting out, how the ecosystems are connected and how they have evolved. Its just a conversation of how we have gotten to here and where we are headed.

 

It takes us a minute or two to get warmed up so hang in there and I hope you get a lot out of it. I know these talks have been really helpful to me in connecting all the dots of this new and evolving world.