https://drlongnecker.com/tags/cognitive-patterns/Recent content in Cognitive-Patterns on David R. Longnecker - Converting Coffee to CodeHugoen-usMon, 18 May 2026 09:00:00 -0600https://drlongnecker.com/blog/2026/05/programming-languages-grammar-and-spoken-language/Mon, 18 May 2026 09:00:00 -0600https://drlongnecker.com/blog/2026/05/programming-languages-grammar-and-spoken-language/<p>Long (very long) ago, I wanted to be a writer. When I decided on an English major, I imagined spending my career crafting meaningful prose for whatever caught my fancy. Turns out the writing happened anyway, just reshaped into blogs, technical documentation, design specifications, and code, with the underlying skill unchanged: arranging words to create understanding in another person&rsquo;s (or system&rsquo;s) mind.</p> <!-- more --> <p>That linguistic foundation became the bedrock for how I learned to code. Not because programming is about writing, though it involves it, but because programming <em>is</em> a language. Knowing how languages work teaches you how to learn them faster than memorizing syntax ever could.</p>