How programming and its theory can expand the mind

From the preface to Simply Scheme (my emphasis):

There are two schools of thought about teaching computer science. We might caricature the two views this way:

The conservative view: Computer programs have become too large and complex to encompass in a human mind. Therefore, the job of computer science education is to teach people how to discipline their work in such a way that 500 mediocre programmers can join together and produce a program that correctly meets its specification.

The radical view: Computer programs have become too large and complex to encompass in a human mind. Therefore, the job of computer science education is to teach people how to expand their minds so that the programs can fit, by learning to think in a vocabulary of larger, more powerful, more flexible ideas than the obvious ones. Each unit of programming thought must have a big payoff in the capabilities of the program.

I subscribe to the radical view, although my Computer Science education is more of a self-education, so I would say that it is a case of learning to expand one's mind appropriately.

Now, a further benefit of learning to program at increasingly high levels -- beyond the ability to deliver bigger and better programs -- is the accompanying mind-expansion. That this will have benefits in other areas of thinking and doing was a key thesis of Seymour Papert, and motivated his work with Logo etc., in the foot-steps of Piaget.

Of course other disciplines may have similarly transferable benefits, but computer science / programming seem to be under-rated in the wider community in this respect.

For example, when I started a law degree -- later abandoned -- it seemed to me that a background in programming would be very helpful to whoever was drafting statutes. Thus far I believe that there is no such trend.

Contrast this with the preponderance of lawyers in parliament!