Archive

That is the question. As time has progressed and we have entered the 21st Century, computer technology has dominated every facet of our lives, trivial or significant. Whether we it be through our constant browsing of the Internet, or how using this technology has allowed humankind to penetrate the depths of space, computers, and thus code are huge dependencies of society today.

When code is such a large part of our day-to-day lives, the question arises:

Should(n’t) everyone learn to code?

Causes like Code.org suggest that it is a necessity, and is a modern form of “literacy” due to its heavy use. The argument for it is that

• it reduces unemployment due to the rise of IT jobs
• it creates sharper minds and fast-thinking individuals
• it would be ridiculous not to know how to control the devices we use everyday

These points are very valid, and many notable figures are trying to make it mainstream through resources like Codecademy and Team Treehouse. It isn’t quite the general consensus, however, and many people in the developer community are opposed (some quite vehemently) to the idea of everyone coding.

The main argument this side of the spectrum conveys is that specialization is the key to human progress. Take the Agricultural Revolution, for example. At first, agriculture was the primary occupation of most people in the civilizations of the time. As time passed, however, people started branching out into other career options, and agriculture became a niche reserved for the farmer class. This eventually lead to rapid progress, as now civilization became more modular with many different places of progress being covered all at once by a variety of people. The same could go with the development community: rapid progress can only occur if a specific group of people focus on development rather than everyone. Let people venture into other fields besides development; let them take the other aspects of society forward while the developer community focuses specifically on bringing technology forward. Other cons include:

• the oversaturation of the market (that will slowly cease to exist) for developers, causing unnecessary neck-to-neck competition within the community
• widespread obesity (yes, it can be a problem)
• more and more WYSIWIG-style tools that actually hinder developer progress in the long run

I’m not going to take a side for this article, as it pertains heavily towards something I am planning to launch soon, but otherwise, it’s quite the question, and the answer will prove to be interesting. Any opinions?

Discuss at my blog

~ Krish Dholakiya