This is one of the better negative responses to the video that I have read. And everything he says is true. However, I think there are a few things that are missing which I think are important. Firstly, I think he thinks the point of the video is to get more kids into a CS career - I can't quite disagree with that as it would in fact benefit most of the people in the video if that happened. However, I personally think the larger purpose of the video relates to the opening quote by Steve Jobs which goes something along the lines of "everyone should learn how to code because it teaches you how to think".

This is not to say "learn how to code so that you can code in your job - whether it be a CS job or any other job" - it's saying that people should learn how to code for very similar reasons as to why people learn math. There are many, many majors which do not require advanced math and yet many kids take Calculus classes. It's not because you need Calculus for your job: it's because learning Calculus will give you problem solving skills, reasoning skills, and other skills which can be applied at your job.

Then there's the whole aspect that, hey, you might actually have FUN coding!

I definitely agree with the author squinting at the "all you need to know how to do is add and subtract" and other things of that nature. I agree that is a half truth. But IIRC, someone in the video elaborated by saying "it's all about breaking things down" - and that is extremely true. Break problems down, solve each one individually, tie things together. That is basically how I go about coding everything I do. Relates very much to abstraction.

Finally the OP article mentioned that the video seemed to be deceiving kids into thinking that (a) it would be easy to get hired into a company like Facebook and that (b) every company is as fun as those shown in the video. As for (a), I disagree. The video never says anything along the lines of "you'll become an expert at coding within a week!" or even within a year. It just says "you should try this out, start today!". I would think that most people in high school would know that getting hired by "a Facebook" would be just as challenging as I would imagine it would be to get hired by "A NASA/Boeing/Lockheed Martin" if you're an Aerospace Engineer - and I'm not in that field. But what's wrong with shooting for the stars? If that sort of company interests you then by all means SET THAT AS A GOAL! But I reiterate back to one of my earlier points: this video isn't even saying "get into a CS career" - it's more of a "this is good for you, and hey, if you end up loving it, there are some really cool jobs you have the ability of applying to".

So, overall the post had some good points but it seems a little misguided. Frankly the author seemed somewhat jaded. I don't know if I'm in the camp that wants everyone to be forced to take a programming class - but I would definitely be in the camp that would encourage all schools to offer it as an elective. While I agree with the author that programming is not for everyone, I certainly think that programming is something that everyone should be encouraged to try out. Not because everyone should get a career in CS, but because coding might turn out to just be a fun (and useful!) hobby for you. And hey, if you do end up really liking it, there are some cool jobs out there. Just keep in mind they're the equivalent of the NASAs and Boeings and Lockheed Martins - it's not a piece of cake to get hired into those.

*small aside: I'm pretty sure any kid that ended up really liking programming would figure out that coding is a little bit harder than the video portrays it to be by the time they decided they definitely wanted to pursue a career in it. So perhaps I can conede the video may have a bit of a "bait and switch" as far as that goes, but the switch will likely happen before kids waste a bunch of time pursing a job they won't get.

edit: and this ended up being much longer than intended. sorry