This article is designed to help you understand the importance of learning at least some basic code.
Consider the two ‘realities’ where we spend most of our time; the physical reality (offline), and the digital reality (online).
The digital reality is becoming an increasingly bigger part of our lives – it’s where people are now spending a lot more time. For example, think about how much time you now spend searching for information using google vs. books, or how much time you spend on social media vs. hanging out with your friends. Compare this to your reality ten years ago.
With the developments in AI (Artificial intelligence) , AR (Augmented Reality)/VR (Virtual Reality) and blockchain (among other significant tech developments), there is no doubt that we will continue to function in the digital reality at an increasing rate.
To operate effectively in the physical world, you need to be able to communicate with other humans. Because it’s humans that make things happen. The better your ability to communicate and get other people to make things happen, generally the better off you are. For example, a manager gets paid more than the people who reports to her/him.
In the digital reality, computer functions make things happen. And the way you get computer functions to work is by telling them what to do using source code (“code”) — this is software development.
With the digital reality developing at rapid speed, computer functions will continue to replace the roles of humans, so knowing how to tell computers what to do will become increasingly more important.
When you put it like that it’s easy to see why it’s a good idea to start learning to code!
So now you know the importance of learning to code, here are a couple of options to get you started:
DIY Free Methods:
- Codecedemy – it’s free to learn.
- Udacity web development courses – start with the Intro to HTML and CSS, then move on to the Intro to Javascript (or another language that’s better suited for what you’re wanting to build, which you can find out more about here).
- You can also find a number of other DIY suggestions on this Quora thread.
NZ based programmes:
Don’t talk yourself out of it
Don’t let your brain convince you that it’s not worth doing because you think you wont be good at or because it seems too hard. Yes it’s hard to get good (like anything – it takes hard work), but you can relatively quickly become good enough. And just like it’s easier travelling around Mexico when you know a small amount of Spanish, your ability to make things work in the digital reality (e.g. basic websites, marketing analytics) will significantly improve with just a basic understanding.
If you’re wanting to build a software startup and you’re still figuring out what, then it could be a really good idea to invest time into learning about software development so you can build your product.
I’ve actually just signed up to a Udacity course as I’m writing this……..Join me!