If you’re feeling a bit hard-hearted and cynical about programming, you could do worse than to read this charming story about a man teaching his 9-year-old daughter to code in Java. It’s both totally adorable and full of interesting pedagogical theory. The writer was surprised by how quickly his daughter was able to pick things up, which he largely credits to the fact that she was allowed to direct the goals of the proceedings (she asked him to help her create a Dr. Who game). He also flew in the face of what seem to be common teaching techniques by starting with very specific tasks — even if that just meant telling her exactly what to do — and, once those were completed, using them to explain more abstract concepts. Software Development