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I started my niece on debugging her first program, against common advice
Hands-on error fixing builds skills faster than perfect code examples.
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andrew_coleman1d ago
What specific bug did she hit first and how did she react when the program didn't work? Did she try to guess the fix herself or did you have to point it out? I'm curious if she got frustrated or if that moment of figuring it out clicked for her. Do you think she learned more from that mistake than she would have from just copying working code?
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the_hayden1d ago
Read an article where teachers said letting kids debug their own code, even with simple typos, builds real problem-solving skills. That moment of frustration turning into understanding beats just copying working code every time.
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anthonyfox1d ago
My nephew spent three hours debugging a missing semicolon in his first Python script. He went from crying to celebrating when he finally spotted it. Now he checks for typos like a pro, which is more than I can say for some senior devs.
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