Why Everyone Should Not Learn To Code

> We need passionate people who are creative and want to learn to DESIGN software in addition to coding.

We also need good workers who can scrape together the code to pipe data from one application to another. We need sociologists and detectives who can construct SQL queries. We need scientists and economists who can cobble something together in R. We need physicists and engineers who know their way around MATLAB or SciPy. We need drafters who can write simple LISP programs. We need artists who can do a little bit of JavaScript when they need to.

These are not people who will always have a passion for programming, and they won't always be producing products or thinking about design. The dream of the fourth-generation programming language is dead, and the new dream is to teach people a little bit about programming, even if it won't be their career or their passion.

I won't become a plumber, but I will learn the basics of switching out the flush valve when my current one is ever so slightly leaking gallons and gallons of water. Anything bigger and I'll call a plumber. I also won't become an electrician, but I know how to shut the breakers off so I can replace a light fixture on my own as well. There is a benefit in having some knowledge not only because it can help you in your day to day lives, but also you get a greater knowledge of what it would take for you to need to have an expert involved.

I take issue with the list of reasons when someone should probably look else where; for the most part I think that the deterrent of the results from attempting any of those will weed people out naturally - perhaps except for the one looking for a quick buck. The one I have the biggest problem with is: Coding because you played a computer game once and want to make the next Assassin’s Creed in a few days of work

My niece wanted to learn how to make a game - she was 9. She thinks math, and reading are "sciencey" (apparently the next generations term for nerdy). I got her set up with a simple click and drag game builder that offers adding logic in a kid friendly way. She started on it, got frustrated, asked me for help and then continued. She still works on her game almost a year and a half later. It's not her primary passion, and she won't probably won't become a programmer - but it's a great teaching aide, and the knowledge of what it takes to build something makes her appreciate the big name games she plays on her various consoles.

I believe learning to code can open more peoples eyes to the possibilities out there. Just because classes are available, or perhaps even mandatory in school, doesn't mean that everyone taking those classes will become engineers by trade.

This line stuck out to me: "Coding because you played a computer game once and want to make the next Assassin’s Creed in a few days of work"

When I was 13, I decided that I wanted to stop playing games and try to make my own. I was naive and thought that I could build one like WoW single handedly and I soon realized that I couldn't. However I did then come across private servers for games like World of Warcraft. From that I started to learn how to run them, I started to learn about SQL to manage the DB, then moved onto to learning LUA in order to script for my server. Even going onto looking into C++. Even then moving onto learning about web development and web servers in order to run the site for my server. That's what sparked my curiosity in coding and development at a young age.

That's why I disagree with this statement. People will learn that they can't build a game just like that, but they make start to take smaller steps and learn themselves. Don't discourage people from trying. They actually have a good mindset where they want to try build things themselves.

As someone for whom programming does not come naturally and is trying really, really hard to get it, I disagree with the article.

I see coding in the 21st century how some people must have seen knowing how to read in the 18th. I wonder if there was someone saying, "Why does everyone need to know how to read? We won't all be writers and authors?"

I love the business side of things, and I don't think I'll ever be the technical co-founder, but it certainly doesn't hurt to be able to speak the same language and understand restrictions and limitations when you're trying to build a product.

Everybody should learn to code, in the same way everybody should learn physics. It's basic cultural and scientific knowledge.

But that doesn't mean everybody should be a Mechanical Engineer.