Learning to Code
Three reasons why I would advise anyone to learn how to code.
Some children aspire to become a doctor, firefighter, lawyer, but adult me dreamed of myself as Aaron Swartz or by a member of the secret group Telecomix. I spent hours browsing all kinds of articles, books, videos on these enigmatic coders, developers, hackers. I fantasized the whole abstruse world they had at their ten fingers. Computer programming is a super power in a totally esoteric dimension. Not for a moment, I imagined that I could integrate this universe, learning to code seemed to be reserved to only gifted young prepubescent.
The desire to learn became stronger than the fear of failure, so I decided one year ago to attend a intensive coding bootcamp for two months, ten hours a day. I had the opportunity to learn more computer languages, build a program and leave the course with a fully encrypted website of my hands.
Though ambitious in the light of my profile, I was the antithesis of good little geek. I was skeptical but I signed up without hesitation. Already I am a girl well over my thirties but mostly I was a journalist. I had more experience in human and political science than hard science.
In short, I had in mind a lot of stereotypes about coding, but I had it all wrong. I have sweated and had nightmares, but I have learned immensely in the several weeks at school. That's what taught me these two months... and not on the code.
1. Learning to code is not just learning how to code, it is learning to learn.
I expected that they would bring me the knowledge and techniques on a platter, but I was wrong. Learning to code is to learn to look for the right information, methods, techniques alone with your friend Google. For one, since IT changes daily one must be able to update their knowledge, both for the field of study is so great, it will never be possible to cover sufficiently underway. Coding is learning to learn. If the first few weeks is extremely destabilizing as a methodology, soon you wonder why this pedagogy that is not applied in schools. This would make us much more active students, invested, curious, cultured.
2. Studying a language, whether IT or foreign, is to format your brain to a new mindset.
The first two weeks of the forward Bootcamp exercises were "Implement a program that allows you to count calories from McDonalds menus" or "Write statements in computer methods of Black Jack". In addition to not understanding the exercises, I did not understand how I could traslate a literal sentence into a computer language sentence. How can a "counts calories menu" or "pull the bank" could well turn it into a kind of:
def end_game_message (player_score, bank_score) / if player_score> 21 / "You are over 21 ... you lose." / elsif player_score == 21 / "Black Jack" / elsif player_score> bank_score / "You beat the bank! You win. "/ End / end
No need to try to transcribe sentence by sentence, learning a language is learning a new way of thinking, of seeing things, to conceptualize the environment. It is adopting a new perspective on the world.
3. Whatever your background or your profession is, coding may be useful to you.
I shared these two months with former insurers, lawyers, communicators, business, financial, marketeux, hoteliers, journalists... all followed the bootcamp to disrupt their professional sphere or simply automate processes of work. The crossing between knowledge in a particular area and coding as a real professional added value. But if this quality is now an option, no doubt it will quickly become mandatory for many professions.
Obviously, besides these three lessons that have literally changed my view on many things, I will remember also a lot of other pleasures and discoveries made by learning to code. Among which:
- making something with my hands
- the freedom to implement program ideas (at least in prototype)
- discover a community of enthusiasts that make coding more accessible through tutorials, MOOCs, and those ready to answer your questions
- the indescribable joy, pride and adrenaline boost you when a whole section of your code works
I do not exactly know how I optimize all this new knowledge. But I do know that now there is a before and after the coding bootcamp, that nothing will ever be quite the same :-)
