[jasonwocky]

> Most people can't begin to program; conversely, most people can begin to run.

This is based on what? You really think that most people can't be taught the basics of "Hello World", or a function that multiplies two numbers?

Plenty of people write Excel formulas when faced with the need to. That's "beginning to program".

[learnstats2]

Yes, I agree with you, Excel formulas are absolutely programming. And yes, I agree, these are skills that can be taught.

But not that many people write Excel formulas. Up to 50% of people in the West don't have basic numeracy skills enough to do what you describe.

[kazinator]

I would say that you're beginning to program when you write something that iterates or recurses. With a clear terminating condition: not merely spreadsheet formulas that contain a cyclic reference whereby you iterate until some numbers appear to stabilize.

In my mind, the recognition of repeated structures in a spreadsheet count as beginning of programming. This sort of thing: "if I create this pattern of cell references and then repeat it across the grid arbitrarily far, such and such a result/behavior will emerge". It is like recursion unfolded, and on the verge of being codified compactly.

[benedikt]

Not only that, but Excel is the worlds most popular functional programming language.

[tedmiston]

In the context of 10x, I think we are talking about programmers that can begin to program _professionally_ vs. bike riding as a hobby.

[mauricemir]

And back in the day in the UK our CSE class at 13/14 had no difficulty learning programming and that was an assembly language with only Add sub and some jump instructions

For context the UK used to have CSE and O Level Exams at 16 the CSE ones where for the vocational track kids who would leave school at 16.