Python PygLatin

[Rustom Mody]

On Sunday, May 8, 2016 at 3:52:12 PM UTC+5:30, Cai Gengyang wrote:
> I just "clicked" through the lesson on Conditionals and Control Flows and am on the lesson "PygLatin" .
> 
> This will hopefully be a more interesting and interactive lesson because I will be building a PygLatin Translator ...
> 
> It seems to me like it will take a long time before I can reach the point where I can become a master of programming languages and even create new programming languages and technologies. This is a long road ahead, but I believe it is worth it because the power of a new technology does eventually translate into money. If one looks at the Forbes List, you will see that there are 4 programmers amongst the top ten richest people in the world (Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison and Jeff Bezos) , a very large percentage. Science and Technology is in a sense the most egalitarian field in the world, because it involves using your brains and creativity. You don't need to have a father who is a director at Goldman Sachs or a mother who is the admissions officer at Harvard to succeed in this line. All you need is have the ability to create something that many users love to use.



Here are some physical creations which humans have made:
  1. Petronas [1]
  2. Chartres [2]
  3. Egypt pyramids [3]
  4. Arunachala temple [4]

What do you think is the ratio of those that designed/conceptualized
these to those who laid stone/bricks/steel? My estimate 1:100 to
1:10000.

Software is no different.  If you train as a pilot you have a better
chance of landing the lead position on the Mars-mission than if you
train as a programmer and hope to become Bill Gates II.

Helpful to read "It doesnt matter" [5] in this respect. Dont get fooled by the
title. What it really says is that as IT transitions from innovation
to utility, it matters more and more but only in a negative sense. eg
if the power or the water or the roads are bad we get very
indignant. When they are fine the so-called 'blue-collar-workers' who
provide them are faceless, invisible.

Cost gravity [6] explains the mechanics of how that happens

In other words we IT-professionals are the blue-collar workers of the
21st century.  Why is this not more widely undersood? Because
CS-education is grossly out of sync with IT-practice. See [7] -- CS
education is habitually taught as though only only the first column
exists. In the IT world its mostly the second that counts.

Steven reminds of the caste-system that the super-rich are usually
sons of the rich in our field like anywhere else.

This is true but misunderstood.  It is not that money begets more
money like some kind of magnet.  Its rather that the rich have a
certain freedom to their thinking/outlook.  An outlook that others too
can with some effort emulate.  Triune brain [8] explains that we have
3 brains corresponding to our evolutionary stages:
  - reptilian
  - mammalian
  - specifically human (cortex)

When we are in survive/sex mode we are essentially reptiles. When we
are in emotional mode we are a bit better -- mammals.  If we can get
beyond both we can be truly human.  This is hard for anyone, but for
the poor the survival needs predominate so its harder. For some
thoughts on switching from the more animal to the more human aspects
of our functioning see [9]
[I guess the advantage the rich have with survival is lost to sex]

2 Refs
======

1. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Petronas_Twin_Towers_2010_April.jpg

2. http://whc.unesco.org/uploads/thumbs/site_0081_0001-750-0-20151104132433.jpg
3. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/All_Gizah_Pyramids.jpg
4. https://arunachaleshwarar.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/tem.jpg
5. https://hbr.org/2003/05/it-doesnt-matter
6. http://content.cultureandempire.com/preface.html
7. http://blog.languager.org/2010/02/service-and-product-mindsets.html
8. http://www.kheper.net/topics/intelligence/MacLean.htm
9. http://blog.languager.org/2010/05/declaration-imperation-and-language.html