Making Sense from the “You Should(n’t) Learn to Code” Discussions
And Why Both Sides are Right
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There’s a hot and trending topic right now on whether everybody should learn to code or not. There are hardliners on both sides throwing arguments at each other. I’ve recently read a post on Medium titled “Please do learn to code” which was a reply to a recent article on TechCrunch titled — you guessed it — “Please don’t learn to code”.
Now let’s make sense of this mess.
I don’t think both articles represent opposite positions even though they think so. Both points are perfectly valid. My conclusions do base on assumptions and a bit of interpretation though.
I have a background in computer science and I work with many non-technical people on a daily basis. I understand where both parties come from and I’m writing about building online businesses for non-technical founders here.
Why you SHOULD learn to code
Computing and the way of thinking logically, breaking down problems into smaller ones, solving them and then automating their successive execution is indeed the new literacy.
But this isn’t anything new. Many if not most professions today already require this type of literacy. Mathematicians use MathLAB. All sorts of scientists code in basic Python. Analysts and regular businessmen create Excel macros to automate their work. Architects write small scripts for AutoCAD.
This type of programming knowledge is what most “Everybody should learn to code” supporters are referring to. And I agree. Everybody benefits from that, and basic coding isn’t that hard to learn.
Why you SHOULD NOT learn to code
Now let’s look at the other side, the nay-sayers, the engineers priding themselves for the work they do and defending their education and smartness. Are they going to loose their jobs when everybody learns to code?
Of course not. The creation of algorithms, the structure of applications, the maintenance of networks and implementation of business processes will remain in their hands. That’s neither what “regular” people should nor can do with their basic programming skills.
This also applies to the hot debate on whether entrepreneurs should learn to code to build their own SaaS applications. I’m absolutely against that, it’s not lean but the biggest waste of time one can come up with.
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So, to recap: Should everybody learn to “code”? Well, absolutely! Everybody should understand how computers work and how to use them more efficiently in their daily routine, including the automation of tasks or calculations with code. Should everybody learn to build large-scale applications or create their own iOS apps? Please, no. There are experts for that.
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