Lately, I’ve been teaching a lot of people programming. I’ve been doing everything from teaching the new members on the robotics team the Java code necessary to make motors move to teaching eighth graders at Kennedy the basics of Python and video game programming. It’s a super rewarding experience that I’m really grateful for, but what I’m most thankful for is the super motivated, enthusiastic students I get to work with. So today, I’m going to explain to you why you should be like them and be the next to learn a bit of programming, if you haven’t already.
Let me start by just getting this out of the way: anyone can code. So many people will tell you that they just aren’t smart enough for programming, but that’s just not true. I’ll put it this way. You may say you’re not good at math. Sure, calculus may be difficult, but I know you can do addition. You were taught that in first grade. Programming is the same way, just like any other subject. It starts off super simple. In fact, the first thing you’ll learn will literally be addition! One of the first lines of code you write might look like this:
number += 6
All that does is add 6 to whatever number was already. Maybe you’re intimidated because it’s in a different font and isn’t written like what you’d expect adding 6 to look like, but trust me, you’ll be able to handle the basics of programming. It’ll be totally worth it for the rewards.
So let’s move on to those rewards I just mentioned. The first of which: you get to make a lot of really cool stuff! Let’s face it, a lot of things that are worthwhile to learn don’t really have any good instant gratification. It’s not super cool to show someone a word problem you solved in math, no matter how challenging of a question it may have been. Programming, however, gives you lots to show off. On day 3 of teaching Pygame to the kids at Kennedy, we already made our very own Super Mario Bros. engine and can make Mario run and jump. Now that is something fun to demonstrate to someone, especially when it’s super easy to make it personalized and put in an image of yourself in place of the jumpman.
The next thing is that you’ll be able to understand the technology around us. The great thing about programming is that really all technology is built on the basics. If you stick with a programming class for seven days, you’ll pretty much have already learned all of the building blocks that make up the new technologies developing around us. Sure, a lot of them get pretty complicated, but you’ll start to realize that they’re just made up of a lot of the basic building blocks stacked on top of each other. Us programmers love to complain about how people just think our job is tech support, but there’s definitely some truth to that. Once you learn a few programming fundamentals, you have much better intuition when it comes to technology, and things like your phone or laptop start to work exactly the way you expect them to.
Lastly, you’ll learn what to fear, and, more importantly, what not to fear. Unfortunately, media like movies and TV have created this expectation that artificial intelligence will eventually rise to a point where humanity can’t stop impending doom. The truth is, there will never be a time where you can’t just press ctrl+c or some equivalent to kill the program. There’s nothing to fear there. However, learning programming does make you realize the dangers of our data-driven society and algorithms that amplify our biases instead of diminishing them. Code-literate people know what dangers to look out for in new technologies, so it’s definitely worth joining us.
I really hope I’ve convinced you to check out a programming class in your spare time. It’s really quite fun, and the benefits of understanding a little programming in a world where we spend 90% of our time on a screen cannot be understated. Thanks for reading, and good luck coding!
As an avid coder, I couldn’t agree more. I honestly believe that coding will eventually be a required skill. As of now, it is a great side hustle and can even make you money if you sell your services on the internet. A quick program can even help you with your retirement calculations and can scale up to programming complex robots. It fundamentally changes how you look at technology and it amazes me how fast these technologies are growing.
Hi Wyatt,
There used to be a period of time in my life where I hated coding and was adamant about the fact that it was not for me. My friends and family always urged me to take AP Computer Science because they insisted it would be useful for me in the future as an aspiring business students, but I always told them no. However, I’m currently taking APCS this year. I wouldn’t call it my favorite class, and I am in no way as good of a coder as you, but I do admit the content is growing on me and I’m awed by the endless things you can create with a compiler, IDE, and keyboard, from cities to turtles to working vending machines. It’s undoubtedly a unique experience.
“a lot of things that are worthwhile to learn don’t really have any good instant gratification” – I wholeheartedly agree with this!
“It’s not super cool to show someone a word problem you solved in math, no matter how challenging of a question it may have been.” – I wholeheartedly disagree with this >:( maybe the set of math problems you have seen is not representative of the types of questions worth answering
Anyways, I want to make a comment about your remarks on artificial intelligence. While media portrayals of artificial intelligence are grossly exaggerated, I still believe there is a possibility of artificial intelligence taking over humanity, but in a way we might not expect. For example, don’t you think the algorithm used to determine which posts are shown to social media users is somewhat… manipulative? And this isn’t a program you can just ctrl-C either.
I completely agree with your third point- that’s what I meant when I mention the dangers of algorithms that amplify biases.
Hi Wyatt! I loved your post! As someone who can program, it’s really rewarding to be able to build anything from scratch. I think it’s also worth mentioning that programming could also be relaxing, just like doing a puzzle. Coding isn’t as hard as it’s portrayed, so I think you did a great job posting this!
Hey Wyatt,
This was a really interesting read! I took Programming 1 and 2 my sophomore year at north and it was one of the most fun classes I’ve ever taken. I hope to take a few more coding classes in college, even if I don’t plan on specifically using it in the future. While I obviously am not at a high level of coding, I still remember getting really excited when my programs would run correctly or if I figured out of to code something new. It really is such an exciting feeling that I don’t really get with any other aspect of school. Nice post!
I definitely agree that coding is such an incredible skill to learn. It’s definitely one of those easy to learn, hard to master sorts of topics. But, if you can manage to continue improving your coding skills, you can do so much with your own two hands. Your ideas can literally become your realities as your imagination guides you. It never ceases to amaze me when I see my code consolidate into a single program and I can show my program through the ease of the internet.