Comment by borski

There is a lot of “we’re nerds, and we own it” in that book. I suspect it was at least somewhat a response to the contemporaneous “ewww computer nerds are the worst kind of dweeb” nonsense that was happening in schools in the 90s.

Personally? I love how it’s written. I find it clever, engaging, and that it uses clever analogies and examples, with a theme running throughout. The little comics provide some levity as well.

I guess, to me, thinking of programming as alchemy effectively levels the playing field a lot. It means nobody is “born with it,” unlike looks or a straight nose or anything like that. It’s all about learning.

That’s how I read it, anyway.

Amateurish? Maybe. But, and this is important: we were all amateurs and it’s an intro to CS book. By definition, the people reading this book should be amateurs.