Pretty common yes. Informal lending systems that are used in a lot of developing countries (most people don't have access to traditional financial services like banks and credit cards) are largely based on social networks and social capital - you are less likely to default on a loan if it's your friends who loaned you the money.
I'm all for everyone learning to code but this doesn't seem to be the way to make that happen. Learning another language also means learning about another culture and learning to think about your own culture and language in a different way. Why should we take that away?
Won't Watson have a significant advantage on the final Jeopardy question where time is not nearly as much of a factor? If it can just keep pace for most of the game and then bet it all on that last question, it should be no contest.
Interesting but does 5 times work for everything or just some specific problems? I would agree that constantly asking why is a good thing but I'm just not sure about this 5 thing