Discussion on: What Programming Language Would You Recommend to Someone Who's Not Naturally Inclined toward Coding?

I think it depends on the coding environment — so make sure they don't have to muck around with dependencies (i.e. get them going on Replit without much fuss).

For me I'd go Ruby because I think you can get a lot of mileage with the basics. Get them into an IRB session and start showing them how to code:

name = "ben"
# "ben"
name = name.upcase
# "BEN"
name = name.reverse
# "NEB"
name = name + " Halpern"
# "NEB Halpern"
5 .times do
  puts name
end
# "NEB Halpern"
# "NEB Halpern"
# "NEB Halpern"
# "NEB Halpern"
# "NEB Halpern"

Start here, and then the follow-on story is that you combine this with a lot of other stuff you're building on top of, and this is how programming works.

If you get them nodding along with this, I think you can get them to install a simple Sinatra server (it won't be simple to them, but if you set it up for them, the important parts would be simple) and render some HTML based on a parameter. Now you've got them thinking in code!

The last thing you send them off with — in this day and age — is the knowledge that "These days AI might be able to do a lot of this for you, so if you have the basics, you can use modern tools to tie together what you know and don't know and soon you'll be doing surprising stuff!"