Why does everyone need to know the basics of programming? 👨🏼‍💻

Six months ago I was introduced to Nawal Ravikant’s book, “How to Get Rich”.

Nawal did a Twitter thread with a colleague, then that idea spilled over into a 4-hour podcast, and ended up being actively distributed in the book version.

I Highly recommend reading it, as Nawal explains through his example what your focus should be. What skills to develop, how wealth is formed, how it differs from money, and how to build a modern business.

So, there was the idea in the book that one of the 5 essential skills for modern man is programming.

I would say that there are five most essential skills: reading, writing, arithmetic, and, as you say, persuasive skill, which is the ability to talk. Plus, I would add programming here because it’s an applied form of arithmetic that gives you a lot of free leverage in whatever field you’re working in.

I want to tell you how the skill of programming helps me in my everyday life :)

1. Algorithms

The first thing that helps a lot in everyday life — is the ability to build algorithms in your head (I’m not talking about the stuffy brute force of trees).

For example, when I have some domestic task — I imagine in my head all the conditions (if-else), which may cause difficulties. Then I can already build a step-by-step plan for solving the problem, write it down if necessary, and proceed to solve it.

The process is very similar to the development of a module in an application. There is a requirement, there is the initial data — it is necessary to perform the task with a minimum investment of time. All that’s left to do is figure out how to cram unit tests into real life 🤓

2. Google

The second skill that develops during development training and helps a lot in real life is the ability to Google.

Yes, it isn’t as easy as it seems at first glance. Experiment and invite your acquaintances to try to find a solution to some everyday topic together.

The topic could be anything, for example, you could try to find and collect a complete list of documents for a visa. Or find a way to pay for an order on Amazon using cryptocurrency.

At some point, this became an insight for me 💡

Indeed, the “you programmer” meme was not born from the fact that the default programmer knows how to interact with all the electronics, install Windows, and fix broken screens. The developer can simply solve the problem several times faster since he already has a knack for working with documentation/instructions and can make a quality google query that solves the problem.

3. DeFi. We are, after all, Web 3.0 man

It’s hard to talk about crypto on this blog and not mention DeFi in this article.

Most of my audience is connected to crypto and should understand the value of basic learning about development.

If you are an NFT flipper — you can easily learn how to write basic scripts on account registration. You can figure out how to mine through smart contracts and find backdoors.

If you’re just investing in crypto, you’ll definitely be interested in how to write a smart contract that reinvests profits into staking. Or write an on-chain trading bot that will work with 1inch contracts 👀

I would also suggest figuring out trading and investment automation strategies. You can parse data from trades on Binance and draw nice charts instead of manually filling in Excel, you can learn how to make backtests for trading strategies.

Ah yes, there is a lot of scam in crypto. And even an Audited by Certik badge shouldn’t put you off your guard. Learn to analyze smart contracts, get into the code and study the projects.

And how nice it will be to get respect from project founders for contributions to their open-source code, I can’t even tell you. I’m always encouraged by the idea of being able to contribute to the biggest projects in the field without any hassle and getting rewarded for it. And a contributor badge will help you in your job search, there’s no doubt about that :)

And if you just want to earn money — go to Web 3.0 frontend, I told you how to do it with step-by-step instructions :)

4. Automation

Last, but not least, is automation.

You can save a lot of your time and mind with automation. It can be anything: payment of bills, routine tasks, or creating databases with some necessary information.

Let me tell you what I did:
- A website to record dietary metrics via Firebase
- A platform to play chess with a friend
- TODO list in Notion with integration via Telegram bot
- Did 5 iterations of my financial accounting service. The final solution was via No-Code with Integromat, but there was also a base in Firebase, 3 different frontend versions.
- Made a Telegram bot this week that calculates optimal position sizes in trading, taking into account risk and total deposit using [Kelly’s formula]

Any automation allows you to stop relying on your memory and free up your precious time to do things that are not subject to automation. At least I haven’t figured out yet how to write a script that spends time with a girl or does exercises for me 👀.

Happy coding ✨

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