IMHO you can't really be a software developer without knowing and understanding computer science. Some try but never move beyond web/front-end stuff, which is f

IMHO you can't really be a software developer without knowing and understanding computer science. Some try but never move beyond web/front-end stuff, which is fine, we need people like that. It is however only a small subset of actual development. Like any field based on science, you can't really drop yourself into it and expect to do well. You need an education in said science. Obviously there is the self-taught crowd, who are a special breed who love life-long learning. This takes time. My recommendation would be to show anyone with an interest in software development the Python REPL. Using REPLs gives a good taste of the concepts of programming without all the foreign concepts of IDEs, etc.