5 SECRETS NO ONE HAS TOLD YOU ABOUT CODING

Nowadays, we live in a society where people get continuously more engaged with the newest technological innovations. In other words, technology has turned into our loyal partner on our day-to-day issues.

However, there is a ubiquitous excitement about the endless opportunities technological advantages gives us most people refuse to understand what is below the peak of the iceberg. So, tell me, why is there a widespread “distancing” on that?

Some will argue: it is too humdrum, too challenging, it requires advanced statistical and mathematical background, or even it is too weird.

Fortunately, it requires far less than brave heart in order to dig deep into the fascinating world of coding. Therefore, I am going to tell you 5 secrets that bring light to this unknown subject.

1. EVERYONE CAN LEARN TO CODE (but find your purpose)

It is true, no computer science degree nor Einstein’s IQ are basic needs to start your first code, but find your purpose.

A purpose is basically your aim. Your ambition can take several shapes: a decision, understanding, something you seek, a design, etc. Having a clear vision of what you want to achieve contributes to a much straightforward workflow and a less mundane routine.

In almost every aspect of life, setting objectives will help you to overgo the numerous drawbacks the path takes with it. Same in coding, the willingness to reach that apex is tremendously helpful to avoid doubt, lack of motivation, or stagnation.

Moreover, one goal leads to another since programming languages are scalable. Unlike spoken languages, having managed one language well, learning another will not require much more effort as it shares the structures, which is extremely helpful when approaching different projects.

CODING IS THE TOOL TO ACHIEVE YOUR PURPOSE.

2. UTILITY RAISES EXPONENTIALLY

It would be needless to point out what role technology plays in our daily life. Nonetheless, it might not be out of place to mention the inflection era we live in today. To do so, I will accompany you through history and see if we find a similar pattern to this.

A blog post in 2016 from Prenda showed a graph (see figure above) that indicates how the literate population shifted from a smooth percentage change at the beginning of the 20th Century because of the monotonous work dynamic that came from the industrial revolution to a much more aggressive slope in the second half due to a more demanding work environment and because of minority groups starting to enter higher education.

Extrapolating this shift to our current situation, we live in an era where technology drives progress in our society and covers nearly all aspects of life. However, very few actually know how all of this works. Extracting the basic member statistics from the most known online coding communities (GitHub, Stack Overflow, Reddit, etc.), there is a rough estimation that about 10 to 30 million people are able to write code*, from which 10 to 20% are women.

*Those numbers, consider those members who code more that just a "Hello World".

Roughly said, only a bunch of people know what drives the machine. Fortunately, we haven't missed the boat yet, but we have to ginger up.

Opportunities raise on a daily basis. For instance, imagine you could offer an analysis that efficiently identifies whether the patient has an illness or not, thanks to a technique that studies the physiological data of the scope. Hence getting a bilateral objection on the final decision makes it more reliable and much more transparent.

Similarly, imagine you could develop a client cluster seeking to adapt your business product according to each individual, avoiding so, irrelevant spam that harms your customer relationship and cost-inefficiency. Additionally, you can enhance the interaction with your client with a beautiful interface that makes communication much more straightforward.

Those things are currently done to improve the healthcare and the retail sector, among others. You see, there is much more behind than random words on a dark screen.

From my personal experience, Business Administration relies on tons of data used for decision-making. I found that by combing the technical knowledge in business/finance with coding, one could scale up the analysis, achieving efficiency and more reliable results. The takeaways are better customer satisfaction, investment opportunities, risks hedgers, among others. Summing up, finding the utility is positively correlated with the persuasiveness of learning programming languages.

3. ON YOUR MARKS, SET, CODE!

“Online learning is rapidly becoming one of the most cost-effective ways to educate the world’s rapidly expanding workforce.”?–?Jack Messman, former CEO at Novell, Cambridge Technology Partners, Unionacific Resources, Somerset House Corp.

There might be curious minds that see the potential and the beauty of a functioning algorithm, but they fail to start.

For those of you who have access to a variety of books, I encourage you to make a quick research on which are in line with your focus of interest and give them a glance.

For those who not, luckily, the World Wide Web allows everyone to gain knowledge of nearly everything. One can find millions of videos and courses, that aim to explain the foundations of how to use the newest programming resources for your personal or professional purposes, spending little to no money.

For a deeper understanding, the educational programs that seek to persuade the usage of code has risen in the last years. Not only big companies or universities, but also individual blogs as in DEV, offer open source content in order to get you started in the coding community and helping to improve your skills.

On a national scale, things are changing too. The European Union founded in 2013, CodeWeek. Chasing to help more young people to master the basics of coding and computational thinking, the event has skyrocket in the past years. In 2019, the attendance was of about 4.2 million people (2.7 million in 2017) of over 80 countries, from which the average attendance age was 11 years old and 49% of the total were women or girls. Furthermore, many high schools in Germany, Denmark and the UK have started to include computer programming as a mandatory curriculum, as governments try to prepare already digital native pupils for the future labour market.

You see, it is not a matter of resources that slows our progress. There are numerous ways to start engaging with the newest programming languages, therefore it just a matter of determination.

4. HELPS TO GET YOUR DREAM JOB

“Whether you want to uncover the secrets of the universe, or you just want to pursue a career in the 21st century, basic computer programming is an essential skill to learn.” – Stephen Hawking, Theoretical Physicist, Cosmologist, Author

The future of work depends on several factors, demographic expansion, economic growth, etc. However, there is high certainty that digitalization is and will continue to be the one principal driver of nearly every position.?

According to a study of Ipsos MORI in 2020, 62% of the asked firms had faced problems with tech skills gaps. Those skills were: understanding of AI concepts and algorithms (55%), programming skills and languages (52%), software and systems engineering (52%), among others.

Occupations that require coding skills grow 12% faster than the market average.

Since there is a low supply of reliable, skilled workers and the demand is growing as said, salaries rose at a constant rate during the recent years.

An analysis of a recruitment site in the UK revealed in 2019 that computing skills had the highest average salaries, compared to positions that require language, creative or business skills. In 2020, the mean advertised salary was 64000 euros for an AI and data science-related posting. Yet, being a specific position, it clearly shows the potential.

Notably, more and more young graduates publish their non-conformity with the required years of experience in the labour market. Nonetheless, having developed the necessary coding skills reduces the probability of not finding a job because of the lack of experience (Not that this is the case of a Data Science Career, there might be differences compared to other sectors).

Leaving the statistics about the advantages of coding behind, let’s get an idea about the profound effect, focusing on the personal gains.

5. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH CODING

“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” ―?Thomas A. Edison

?For those of you who have never written a line of code, it is pretty similar to those summer holidays where you take a never-ending walk through the beach hoping to find that right spot. Therefore, in coding, one consistently goes through drawbacks to accomplish the stated goals.

Besides the importance of focusing on the bigger picture, negligent works pay off in the form of uncountable errors. Therefore, a tenacious mindset helps coders to reach the next level.

But determination is not the only takeaway, planning is also a skill you must develop. Consistently writing algorithms requires you to follow a similar structure; however, be open to continuous changes in this environment. Consequently, one adopts a skeptical attitude towards the written lines, as past failure forces you to question the things you do constructively.

From a personal perspective, coding pushes your imagination, spicing your work with your personal watermark.?

Moreover, even though you might think it is a vastly individualistic work, nothing is further from reality. Online communities in the coding environment grow year by year. Joiners interact together in order to help others to improve their algorithm or to take the first steps.

WRAPPING UP

To conclude, although coding is not the panacea to achieving your dreams, it is a valuable skill that truly eases your way to success.

Whereas it gets you to your dream job or opens you the door for a higher salary, it scales you up on a personal level.

This fast-changing environment will always force you to get out of your comfort zone, be always up-to-date, and continuously improving your skillset, particularly at the very beginning. Nonetheless, the remuneration of this investment can help you in nearly every aspect of life, and this (from my personal point of view), is somewhat not everything can teach you, ergo it is worth to give a try.

Thank you for taking your time to read my post, feel free to comment or share it.

Hope you are all well and staying healthy.

See you in the next post,?

Best regards,

Manuel Hupperich