But I’m not a coder!
If you are reading this, you are most likely a human. Humans are creative creatures. We invent. We build. We solve problems — and we have come a long way in doing so.
With the latest dopamine hit now at the reach of our fingertips, we are entering an age where many of us are digitally consuming more than we are creating.
Is this a problem? No one knows for sure, but many would argue that it might become one.
Generating original thought, ideas, art and products are now more important than ever. We should constantly be seeking to improve our ability to bring ideas from the mind into the real world.
The ability to create digital products with code is one of the most creative, underrated and transformative skill sets one can develop.
On paintings and books
The last time you looked at a painting, did you feel utterly perplexed and at odds as to what was in front of you? It is likely you were able to break down how the painting came to be.
- Paint — A gooey substance that holds colour (have played with it during school)
- Canvas — A mostly flat surface where we put the paint.
- Brush — Can’t see this at the moment, but you can envision the artist using this tool in their studio to put the paint onto the paper, allowing them to control the shapes.
You were able to understand this much — drawing from your limited art sessions in school as a five year old. But still, you have once created what you are now consuming.
In the same way, if you are lucky enough to be literate, you have an understanding of how a book comes to be constructed; with letters, words, sentences, paragraphs and chapters, all organised to enable an expression of ideas bigger than their individual units.
Why do we not seek the same level of understanding for programs, applications and the web? After all, the average person spends much of their waking hours each day interacting with many forms of digital media. Why do we not feel a strong urge to envision and develop our original ideas into digital products?
Benefits of learning to code:
Immersing ourselves in the process of creating digital products, understanding the basic principles of software design and development can only be a good thing.
Better vision
Even if we have attempted to paint just once, we will never look at paintings in the same way again. All of a sudden we are able to step into the frame of mind of the artist. Being able to look at problems from different perspectives will open our minds to seeing things we’ve never seen before. The ability to apply different mindsets to a problem will allow us to develop new, integrated original solutions.
Becoming creators of our world, instead of passive consumers.
Developers are also artists. Learning even the basics of coding will allow us deeper into the mind of the people designing and creating the products we interact with in our digital world. It will allow us to express our own ideas in the digital sphere, and unlike many other fields, the barriers of entry are relatively low.
Developing critical thinking skills.
The ability to break down big problems into smaller manageable tasks is an extremely important skill and transferrable throughout all aspects of life. This skill can be obtained by exposing oneself to a variety of experiences and learning to code is one of them. It is only when we are not afraid of the scale of large looming problems and are able to break it down into smaller pieces, that we are able to progress with designing effective solutions.
Low barrier to entry
The start-up capital required is relatively low compared to many other industries to turn ideas into scalable solutions. We have all heard about the small team of individuals turning ideas with minimal funding into billion dollar companies. There is a high chance you already have access to the same toolset and open-source resources as the average professional software engineer.
Makes us humble and comfortable with the unknown.
Software development is not easy. Problems, user requirements, technical limitations and tools are always changing. Even if they were to remain the same the sheer amount to learn is overwhelming. You will never feel comfortable with your skill and will constantly be in awe of how much more you still don’t know. This is important. Because it is closer to the truth.
In order to improve, humans need to operate on the edges of what we are comfortable with and dive into the unknown. There is so much to learn and so little we understand. Being in a discipline that constantly reminds you of how insignificant you are can only be a good thing.
Fun times!
Also, once you get the hang of things- it’s mad fun! Finding a really hard problem to solve and wracking the brain until a solution is found is extremely rewarding! None of us are on this earth for very long, so why not allow ourselves to play, make, build and leave something worthy behind?
But I’m not a coder!
Before we rush to identify ourselves as ‘non-coders’, ‘not the type to sit at a screen all day’ and ‘unable to do hard math things’, I challenge you to give it a go. Initially, you may feel completely disheartened and perplexed, but like everything, it takes practice. I am on a coding journey myself and learning every day. You will soon learn the experts are doing the same.
Once you have skilled up in the right areas and found the right tools, you will discover coding to be one of the most powerful and underrated creative disciplines.
Do not waste your energy contributing to more noise in this world. Do the harder thing. Learn to think better. Equip yourself with valuable skills. Bring your original ideas onto the keyboard. Start creating.
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