GitHub CEO on coding: “It is hard to learn when you are dead”
Chris Wanstrath on coding for everyone
A new reminder of the trip to sunny California arrived at the cold London: RBC published my interview with GitHub CEO Chris Wanstrath.
GitHub is the most popular resource for hosting code in the world. All the programmers I know are familiar with this site. General public in Russia heard of GitHub when it was blocked for a couple of days (sometimes I think all the restictions on Internet in Russia are good in some way: at least people learn that there is GitHub or Vimeo in the world).
Chris Wanstrath reminds of a rock musician with his tattoos and curly ginger hair and makes jokes all the time. That is how CEOs in Silicon Valley look sometimes.
The interview is published in Russian, but for those scared of Cyrillic, here is the part on coding.
«I do not think coding is a magic»
— It is often said that coding is the skill of the future. Do you agree?
— Software development is indeed a hot skill today. At least here, in Silicon Valley they talk a lot about self-driving cars, bitcoins and other physical objects. But these chats are all about software in the essence. But is important not to build the robot hand, but to operate using software. It means there will be a growing demand for engineers in the future who will build such software.
— Some people even said that basic coding is a must for everyone, from a journalist to a salesperson. Do you think that everyone really needs this?
— Everyone who wants a great job and push the technology forward should learn to code. But the problem is it is very hard to learn. There are lots of things you need to know before you start to work on your own project. That is the problem we want to solve. But I can not say that anyone should learn to code. You should start coding if you really want to build software.
— There are plenty of ways to learn to code: interactive school CodeAcademy, massive open online courses such as Coursera. What would you personally recommend?
— Everyone has his own way. Someone needs to go to a lecture, someone watches videos, someone takes books. The more opportunities you get the better because there are a lot of people in the world who are going to the classes and did not understand anything. In the end they think they are stupid. But if they tried Coursera, they would become the star of the class Or probably you need a book, but not a lecture. I do not think coding is a magic. People learn it in different ways, but anyway you need to be focused.
— How did you learn?
— I am one of the people who can not go to the classes. I would rather read a book. I went to classes on coding, but I could not learn anything. It was not my way of learning. When I started to self-education and read book, it went much better.
— How old were you when you learned to program? Is there an age limit for a start in coding?
— It is hard to learn when you are dead. While you are still alive you can become an expert. I am sure there is no any age limits. I saw so many great engineers who began late, so I do not have any bias. Such a limit can exist only in imagination.
Anyone can learn to code: there is no gender of age restrictions, no need for the background in math.
— Is maths really unnecessary?
— I am terrible in maths. Coding is a huge area. Of course, there are areas where you can not go without maths, for example if you make a car for a video game. But if you build a mobile app, you do no need maths.
to be continued
