Programming is (not) for everyone

We live in the age of digital (r)evolution, I hope that' something that everybody knows. Here in Serbia lots of media actors are talking about digitalization, and many of them that preach how to become "digital" still do not know how to change the wallpaper on their (overpaid) smartphone. But hey, let's keep in trend! My understanding of the digitization process may be somehow different. You do not need to change, just make a best use of the benefits brought through new technologies. This in fact means that everyone is still doing his job in a slightly different (more modern) way. Although programmers are earning more than average, not everyone should become a programmer! Nevertheless, that's knowledge that can be useful to anyone, that's why I decided to say a word or two regarding this topic.

I may, in comparison with other members of my generation, be somehow different, a "rare beast". I wrote my first program with 8 or 9 years (thanks to Dejan Ristanovic and the magazine "Ra?unari" in their missionary work). In teenage days I started to learn programming. I was lucky to attend the IX Gymnasium where I was taught by great professors. Bojana and Dule were first of all good mathematicians and pedagogues. In the late 1980s, PCs in Serbia were a rare phenomenon, and they my teachers were not burdened with technologies (which they didn't have) but they dedicated themselves to learn algorithmic thinking. I owe them gratitude, all I ever needed to learn about programming they had thought me in IX Gymnasium, the rest was just an upgrade. With the intention to become a programmer, I also enrolled in the Faculty of Organizational Sciences, but after the 2nd year I realized that I am interested in some other things. Simply, I did not see myself as someone who would sit in front of computer all the time and keep coding! My new obsession became marketing, so the logical choice was to graduate management. I later worked as a salesman, marketer, consultant...  And on all these tasks programming knowledge was only beneficial to me. The fact that I can understand how to "reconcile" the world of management and the world of IT has contributed that I've never been jobless.

I would not to criticize "false prophets of digitization" but rather to praise the true ones! Some time ago I found that IT education was introduced as a regular subject in elementary schools. It made me curious so I visited site of ?Petlja“ (petlja.org), which is the organization that brought this initiative. I was very impressed! At the end of the '1980s we all made our first programming steps in BASIC, some thirty years later Python was imposed as a logical choice. On the site of ?Petlja“ many useful things can be found, but it seems to me that best of all is the manual for learning this programming language. It was written extremely simple, adapted to age of eleven-year-olds, with a lot of examples and a development environment ran by the Internet browser. I'm sorry that I never had this sort of tool when I, long time ago, started to learn programming. It seems that lots of love and knowledge have been invested in the project, all I can add: my deep bow to the authors! And all of you that had never programmed (and wanted to) go to petlja.org and make some effort to learn Python. Thanks to this site I learned in a few hours. You may need a little more time, but if you have the desire and motivation: just go ahead!

I owe you one more clarification: I learned the syntax of the Python programming language in a few hours! It's far from programming! To be professionally involved in programming, you need a lot more: learn several programming languages, master the databases, learn a bit about system administration ... and after that it takes a lots of experience! The desire to become a programmer "because they are making big money there" is crazy! Everyone could not also become designer, writer, lawyer, doctor, scientist... For each of these occupations you need to have the inclination, motivation and have to invest a lot of work.

You do not need to create technologies to be their user. Digital (r)evolution brings a lot of other well-paid jobs. Do what you love, and on that occasion use new technologies. Not for the sake of the technology itself, but because it could help you to be more effective and efficient.