Minimum Viable Programmer

[ashfurrow]

What is it, in our opinion?

[alloy]

Someone with a good dose of critical thinking (ask seemingly naive questions to get to the root of an issue, embrace critique, logical reasoning about how a program works at an abstract level).

My personal experience is that the actual act of programming can then follow easily. Mainstream programming (web/mobile) isn’t that hard and doesn’t require CS etc imo.

[ashfurrow]

Agreed. This issue came from the context of a Coalition for Queens curriculum meeting. Given a very limited amount of time, what skills should be taught to make them a good candidate for a job based on their potential?

In other words, consider that someone already has those qualities you outlined. What actual skills could they be taught to get them a job as a junior dev? Should they be familiar with the command line? Git? TDD? REST? Anything at all?

I think we agree that hiring someone without any programming experience would be a solid choice if they did display those characteristics. What I guess I'm asking is, what minimum set of skills qualify someone to call themselves a "programmer"?

[orta]

FizzBuzz

[ashfurrow]

Makes sense.

[dbgrandi]

I started a draft of the same post based on notes I had from the C4Q meeting. Would appreciate any feedback if you have the time.

dbgrandi/dbgrandi.github.io#8

[orta]

Dave got it shipped 👍