Biden to coal miners "Learn to code."

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112. People who work in coal mining should prepare to transition to something else.

But this particular thing (mining --> coding) isn't great advice. It has a dubious history. See, for example, this NY Times article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/12/us/mined-minds-west-virginia-coding.html

I'm not sure why people are so fixated on "coding" as the solution to all our problems. Mostly this kind of advice comes from people who don't really understand what software development is. I'm not a software engineer myself, but I am a scientist who knows enough to have a healthy respect for the discipline. It's not for everyone. It's not just a general "smart person" job. To be good at it, you need a certain affinity for applied math and a certain mindset (being able to think algorithmically). Learning about and using sophisticated equipment, as miners do, is impressive, but that's not closely related to software development.

I agree with Biden's central point -- an old industry is dying and young people need to move on -- but framing the point like this is a mistake. I worry that too many of Biden's advisers (and those of the other candidates too) have no experience with technology development and don't really know what they're talking about. He needs an engineer or two on his staff to counter the poly-sci majors

ETA: I laughed out loud at his description of "throwing coal into a furnace" -- like we're talking about guys in the bowels of the Titanic keeping the ship powered. I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure shoveling coal is nobody's job nowadays and that coal mining is mostly about computers and robots, like everything else is.