Coding is not the new literacy, modeling is: But modeling needs coding

I buy Chris Granger’s argument here, that coding is not nearly as important as modeling systems.  The problem is that models need a representation — we need a language for our models.  The point is modeling, but I don’t think we can have modeling without coding.  As Michael Mateas said, there will always be friction (see post).

We build mental models of everything – from how to tie our shoes to the way macro-economic systems work. With these, we make decisions, predictions, and understand our experiences. If we want computers to be able to compute for us, then we have to accurately extract these models from our heads and record them. Writing Python isn’t the fundamental skill we need to teach people. Modeling systems is.

via Chris Granger – Coding is not the new literacy.