Why Everyone Should Learn to Program

There is significant delineation between "learning to program" and "becoming a programmer." In the author's context, it was a simple make vs. buy decision. A simple script was better than the alternatives available, and was a more suitable solution to hack it together. Would his hack be production-ready/salable? No.

But, how many projects have you worked on where the if the client had built a basic prototype, it would improve your ability as a contractor to build it right? The client would have more appreciation/context for the level and scope of work needed for the project. How much more work would there be if every grocery-store clerk had such basic knowledge and appreciation? Is he going to make the job market more competitive in programming? No.

The result of an influx of beginner programmers (or a society-wide basic threshold of programming knowledge), IMO, would be more and better end products, reduced frustration on all sides, and more innovation. I hired teams/contractors for projects in the past, and was unhappy with the result. And I attribute it not to the level of competence of the contractor, but my own. I've taken up the mantle and begun learning to program over the last year (Python/RoR/PHP/JavaScript/HTML5/CSS), and am working on building my own prototypes. But I know I can't much get beyond that, and will need-and be better able-to identify, recruit, and collaborate with professionals to take those prototypes to the next level.

Many professional programmers are autodidacts, not university-trained computer scientists. You have to start somewhere. It is easy to find a free/cheap programming book and "get started." But that is a far cry from building a testable, scalable solution.

In today's society, where technology is ubiquitous, the author's call for programming to be a basic educational goal is appropriate. His eloquent framework about reimagining the "interfaces of our lives" carries weight. If the average person gave more thought to these issues, and had a basic understanding of the technology needed to pursue such innovation, the impact would be significant. 

The world needs more autodidacts, and people who think critically about their environment. More education all around is a good thing for not just technology but society in general. Would these newfound beginner hackers detract or add value? I believe the latter.

So what? Just because I it will most likely happen doesn't mean anyone knows, when it will happen.

In line with this article, I've been learning how to program as rapidly as possible. I'm a sales lead for a startup with a heavy Ruby use, as well as a little C, C++, and JS.

I can tell you it isn't easy, but its worth it. I'm better at my job because I now can study the product line by line, and I am also able to script mundane tasks like lead gathering via web scraping.

But -- once again, it's not easy or quick to do it right -- get ready for a marathon and befriend as many people at local user groups as possible. Even people working in langages you don't plan on learning and in industries you'll never go in to (you never really know what languages or industries you'll be working in 10 years later anyway). I wouldn't be able to do it without the input of my local ruby group, my coworkers, and some friends I met at our office space at a mid-sized coworking facility.

To answer a potential next question: the resources I've been using/have in my queue are as follows (keep in mind I've been trying to learn full stack web dev rather than just one language):

For Ruby/Rails:

-Agile web dev with rails (practically required these days)

-Code School's Rails for Zombies (Amazing, free, and the right amount of tough for a newbie -- I plan on buying their Jquery lineup soon)

-Michael Hartl's Rails Tutorial Screencasts (I'm definitely a video guy, and you get a discount for completing R4Z)

-Crafting Rails Applications (Takes your perception of rails to another level)

-Programming Ruby 1.9 (You'll have to learn Ruby eventually, might as well learn from one of the best)

-Ruby Best Practices (Its free, darn good, and Greg Brown's a pretty cool dude from what I can gather)

-The Ruby5 podcast (It's 5 minutes, and gives you a great survey of all of the cool widget gems and the large development undertakings within the community)

-Ruby Rogues Podcast (I know one of the brains behind this podcast, so I listen. It's 75% over my head, but the 25% I do get is amazing.)

-Everyday scripting with Ruby (This book is for the audience that the author of this article describes. If you have an annoying, repeated task you're doing, make the computer do the heavy lifting.)

Non-Rails/Ruby:

-Carsonified's ThinkVitamin Membership (Absolutely the best tutorial vids I've ever seen. Short, clear, info heavy, and very quickly retained. I feel like I'm in The Matrix when I'm watching their stuff. There's actually some good stuff for Sinatra, Django, and WordPress here too)

-PG's On Lisp (I have no intention of building Lisp applications, but the book is amazingly written, and interlaced with PG's manifesto for quick, high quality development. Lisp is his weapon of choice but many of the principles here are rock solid regardless of the medium the artist chooses. Plus it's free.)

-5by5 Podcasts, particularly "Lets Make Mistakes" (They're design podcasts, and the professional design industry is particularly adept and finding client and consumer "pains" and fixing them. Plus, you will eventually have to make your products not look like crap)

I apologize for the long post, but if I were reading this thread 6-8 months ago, I would've killed for a list like this. To the "biz guys" looking to learn: you can't go wrong, in my opinion, with the above list at all. If you're low on cash, some of these resources are free, but every dollar I've paid has been money very well spent.

Another issue is that discussing project requirements is usually done very badly.

If you don't know any programming, you won't know when to ask for a professional.

You know that an automated weekly task is easy. You know that scraping names out of an API is easy. So you can do it yourself, or pay a pro a few hundred to do it.

If the task to be automated was different, i.e. "put all the confidential emails into a special folder, and forward everything else to a public archive" then it would a little more expensive. You only know that because you know that computers can't differentiate "private" emails, wich you know because you know how to program.

well, looking at the cost of going out to eat every night, vs. buying the ingredients at your local grocery store, it makes sense to learn to cook - cheaper food, you know what's in it, etc.