One does not simply learn how to code

Archived link-post: The original 2016 entry consisted almost entirely of an embedded social-media post. The external embed is intentionally no longer required for this page to function.

The point I saved was simple: learning to program requires becoming comfortable with abstraction. You cannot understand every implementation detail before you begin using a language, library, framework, operating system, or network service productively.

That remains a useful teaching idea, but the original third-party embed was too fragile to justify presenting this as a maintained instructional article.

Last reviewed: August 9, 2026.