Not everyone should be a software developer by trade.
However, learning to code, even a little bit, can make everyone just a bit more effective. Even if that coding is in Excel and VBA. Especially if that coding is in Excel and VBA.
Why Everyone Should Not Learn To Code
11–20 of 66 posts
Re: Why Everyone Should Not Learn To Code
#12Let's start with everyone learning some math, first. Particularly probability & statistics.
Agreed. It is very weird how english illiteracy is not tolerated where as mathematical illiteracy is the norm.
Re: Why Everyone Should Not Learn To Code
#13wat. That's like saying no one should learn to draw because they might draw better than a "real" artist. Or no one should learn woodworking because they saw a nice table once but they'll never fully understand it and they'll build shitty things. I don't get the point of this article at all. Coding is a craft! A really powerful, accessible, incredibly-sharable craft.
P.S. I'm trying to figure out what learning-to-code resources adults who don't yet code would be in to, or where you'd tell your non-programmer friends to start if they expressed an interest.
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Re: Why Everyone Should Not Learn To Code
#14Let's start with everyone learning some math, first. Particularly probability & statistics.
I am a big fan of the "Learn to Code" movement, and I agree that Statistics should be even HIGHER priority than coding - data-based reasoning & communication are almost an absolute necessity for any field.
Also the job prospects are probably just as strong for data analytics folks, even if the median salaries don't match software folk
Re: Why Everyone Should Not Learn To Code
#15Whilst I agree that it would be silly to say that everyone should be a software engineer, an understanding of how basic programming works would be a benefit to many people in many varying fields.
I became interested in programming through scripting Adobe InDesign. In this type of area, it's really amazing what a little bit of programming knowledge can achieve. Our technical books now contain far fewer inaccuracies because they are tested by the computer, and index-compilation tasks that used to take days by hand are done on command.
Programming is cool, and I like that people talk about demystifying it a bit.
Re: Why Everyone Should Not Learn To Code
#16%s/code/write/g
Re: Why Everyone Should Not Learn To Code
#17Could not disagree more. Just because you will not become a computer scientist or full time engineer does not mean you won't have value in your life by understanding more about how software and computing works. All businessmen are not accountants, but you still take a basic financial accounting class when you major in business. It teaches you the basics of how things are organized and why certain things are measured…
Basic accounting class is equal to the basic computer class. You'll learn just very general things like "this is computer and here's what it does"
The basics about computers are machine language. The next complicated layers are opcodes (abstraction over machine language) and then higher programming languages.
Concrete applications are the highest and most complicated level (i. e. they contains millions of complicated lines of code).
Re: Why Everyone Should Not Learn To Code
#18This sounds as ridiculous as making the argument that everyone should not learn to read.
Some people may feel like learning to read will make them more money, so these people shouldn't learn to read, they will be wasting their time!
Some people may want to learn to read because they remember those awesome bedtime stories, and would like to read them to themselves, these people are wasting their time too because they just want to learn to read to escape reality!
And so on...
Just because someone has one silly motivation to learn to read, doesn't mean it will be a waste of time acquiring the skill, because it has many applications beyond the original motivation.
Programming is the same thing, and since so many things rely on code, it may be just as important in the future as knowing how to read.
At the very least, learning to code is empowering, and its hard to imagine someone suffering negative consequences from learning this skill.
Re: Why Everyone Should Not Learn To Code
#19There should be a specialization: some people are specialized in coding, others - in something else. A group of specialists together is better than a group of those who can do several things just not too bad.
have you ever worked on a real project? In some places specialists are quite nice, but in most situations, there is nothing worse than a person who says "oh, I won't touch that, I only deal with X".
well.. I've worked in Exxon Mobil for a while, now own a successful business and also CEO in a startup. Your point of view is acceptable for some small companies and startups, but if the company goes bigger, everyone just can't do everything, it's a chaos and loss of concentration.
Re: Why Everyone Should Not Learn To Code
#20I support the 'Learn to Code' trend, insofar that programming has the ability to empower people. e.g. Being able to automate a tedious boring or building your own blog is an amazing feeling that I do believe today's youth/generation ought to experience. Overall, I think that the minority of programmers who are afraid of the wave of poor-programmers seeping into the field shouldn't hinder the coding movement.
I like the trend too, particularly in the sense that everyone should learn about programming in the same way that everyone should learn math and how to read/write. Not everyone goes on to become an author and I won't expect everyone to go on to be professional programmers. I think the push back against this trend is due to the uncertainty surrounding how a movement like this will change the industry. Like you said it will empower people and I think one of the ways this can change things, in a good way, is by allowing services to be centered more around APIs so that everyone can build and customize tools the exact way they like.
Take for example todo list software, there will always be many offerings because everyone has a certain way they like to go about it. If you can program then you can customize the experience for your particular case while the data (the key resource being shared in the case of teams) remains the same. It's also very similar to putting together your own macros in many programs... just taken a bit further.