(Note: This article was originally published to JamieMcSloy.co.uk on March 10th, 2020. I’m going through an old backup of the site, which has hundreds of posts that aren’t currently uploaded. As I’m working hard on updating the site – and releasing The Vault, letting these old posts be the daily posts for a while.)
Not Everyone Will Be A Programmer, But…
I had another tech day; this one more successful than yesterday’s. That said, it doesn’t exactly make for inspired writing.
On tech though, here are some quick thoughts on something that’s been floating around in my mind.
Another Issue With “Everyone Can Be A Coder”
I’ve written before – maybe not on the blog – about the idea that the economy will be fine because every worker displaced by automation will be able to learn to code.
This is incredibly stupid on multiple levels.
Ex-taxi drivers have entirely different dispositions to ex-farmers and they’re completely different to guys who have to retire out of construction because they’ve hit 45 and their back has given up.
All of those guys – not to mention girls – are different to programmers in terms of their disposition, cognitive make up and suitability for programming.
Ergo, it’s stupid.
In fact, the above is pretty offensive, if we’re honest. It’s Blank Slate Theory taken to an extreme conclusion.
But there is a silver lining.
You Don’t Have To Be A Programmer To Code… And Most Applications Aren’t In Programming
The above is a bit of a tongue-twister. Hear me out though.
I check out a lot of different subjects over the course of a month or so. I’m interested in whatever the future holds.
Some of the developments are crazy. You can, for less than $100, get Raspberry Pi setups for the weirdest and most wonderful of interests:
- Drone photography
- Automated chicken coops
- Vertical indoor gardening set ups
- Mirrors that are also stereo system computers
Most of these projects are done by hobbyists and don’t cost very much.
These are where there are massive opportunities for anyone to learn to code.
And the craziest thing…
You Can Be Terrible At Coding And Still Have a Product
The advice to get people to retrain as programmers is short-sighted because a lot of growth in automation will not be in tech itself. There will be engineers working on vast AWS-style infrastructure projects and cancer-detecting algorithms. However… you can sell a product based on an Arduino system that’s essentially a bunch of YES/NO switches and have it be a unique problem solver.
Most people should concentrate on that if they’re going to code.
For instance, I am working on a coding project. I’ve talked about it in the Direct Response Newsletter and will probably dedicate some of the next issue, (or maybe the issue after that,) to talking about updates to the project.
Now, here’s the kicker:
I am not very good at programming at all.
I have written about it somewhere on this site, but I know basic programming in Python, as well as the various bits and pieces for the various web languages. My programs are something that would make an actual programmer blush though; they’re inelegant, there are lines of code that don’t need to be there, and if you follow my blog and ever think, “Jesus… this rambling, if this do that if not do something else… why don’t you just get to the point Jamie?”
That’s what my coding is like too.
Now… I could fix this. I’d have to if the necessity ever arose that I needed to become a programmer professionally.
I’d just have to sit and learn the fundamentals and practice and spend hours upon hours getting the necessary skills.
My point is that I don’t need to do that however.
My programs are crap, but after a couple of hours finding where the bug is… my programs do what I want them to do.
These little automations will save me time and make my business far more profitable.
And that’s the message that should be going out to the people who clearly aren’t going to be programmers. You don’t need a huge amount of skill – you need to know where to look and what to automate in order to “hack” whatever it is you do.
distilling your message down to: “get over not being a genius or strong on X, because even if you were, you could still benefit from getting lettered on Y, Z, A, B, which are the domain of other geniuses/somatotypes”. BASICALLY THERE IS NO LIMIT TO WHAT YOU CAN GET YOURSELF INTO.