My comment was perhaps a bit harsh and poorly worded, but I do generally stand by it. The article itself is rather harsh as well, it flat out says "there are those who can program, and those who cannot". In my experience, the people who "can" program, almost always discover it on their own through their own curiosity.
For sure, someone may not discover programming until later in life and my anecdotal evidence can't possibly be all encompassing. But I do find if they haven't discovered programming on their own before taking their first CS course, that is very often a sign that they fall into the "cannot program" category that the article puts forward.
EDIT: even the fourth comment on Jeff's blog basically says what I said: "When I was in college, I remember the students in my classes who had trouble were ones who were entirely new to programming. The rest of us had either been in programming classes previously or had been coding for fun since we were kids."
For sure, someone may not discover programming until later in life and my anecdotal evidence can't possibly be all encompassing. But I do find if they haven't discovered programming on their own before taking their first CS course, that is very often a sign that they fall into the "cannot program" category that the article puts forward.
EDIT: even the fourth comment on Jeff's blog basically says what I said: "When I was in college, I remember the students in my classes who had trouble were ones who were entirely new to programming. The rest of us had either been in programming classes previously or had been coding for fun since we were kids."