Get'em young and uncorrupted
New challenges seem to be often best solved with fresh approaches.
Perhaps nothing in programming is more ripe for this than parallel programming. I sum this up with a simple call to "Think Parallel."
Today, I was challenged with a simple question:
"How far could we go if we started with a fresh uncorrupted mind?"
The idea is simple: teach parallel programming concepts early enough to avoid the corruption that sequential thinking may represent. Don't send programmers to college already corrupted and broken.
I can't help but think of my professors a couple decades ago, who decried BASIC which was commonly used in high schools (that had computers) in the 1970s and 1980s. The bad coding habits BASIC encouraged (not block structured programming back then) had to be "unlearned."
Can you "unlearn" completely?
Can we "unlearn" sequential thinking completely?
I don't think so.
What could we do with fresh minds?
Are you already trying?
When does the corruption start, that we need to beat to the punch?
Would you be interested in helping find out like minded engineers - thinking of shaping future generations by starting with parallel programming?