Why you should start learning how to code in 2021
Hey Everyone! 👋
If you think you should change career and you love to use the Computer, it's great to focus on learning the basics of software and web development.
Let's dive better into that.
It has been another great week full of events:
- Moving into another apartment, into the contract and organizational part of the move.
- Second lecture about MeSoftware.
- Actually programmed something after a "big" pause. (a week?)
This week I'm into thinking about why everyone should start or try to program.
My story
I started when I was 13 or 14 with html + css and some PHP, about 17 years ago.
It wasn't actually anything "serious" until I got into the "technical" high-school, where you have 2 years of "normal" high-school, shared with every other program, then you have 3 years of "specialization". Mine was Computer Science, and I learned actively c#, c++ and other languages.
The situation
The corona pandemic has changed the job market, now is harder to find jobs that are not tied to something online, and even after everything is over, we will be changed for the good.
Before the pandemic, the software developer job market was continuously rising, without any sign of stopping. Please absolutely inform me of a friend of yours that actually love and program that has no job or has problems to find one. I never seen or heard about it.
Probably software developer market will never stop, as long the technology continues to grow and comes up with new things. Like Moore's Law:
Moore's law is the observation that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit (IC) doubles about every two years.
Your Resolution
I would suggest that even if you already have a job, you should give a go to software/web development, especially if you want or need a change.
You know, you can make programming that side hustle or hobby that you can slowly grow, anyway at your pace.
Beside the appealing job market, programming open parts of your brain that before you didn’t know they existed: you understand how things are build, or at least you understand how people that build things think.
It gives you another perspective on the world that you didn't have before. It sorts of open your eyes on many things.
Learning to program can give you a chance to get a remote job or the security that in difficult times, you just need a good laptop, the will to to earn some money.
Personally I think there's also an artistic and spiritual side of programming: you're actively creating things that people use, things from scratch!
The first time I show the software to a public it feels like my kid is performing into a dance or a contest 😆 There's a sort of good feeling when you show your work to everyone on the internet.
Which Language?
The list of languages you can do is basically infinite. You can go with web languages, so after the HTML markup and the CSS stylesheets, you can choose either Javascript, PHP, dotNet (although very specific for windows machines) and so on.
The feeling online is that you need to start with Python. Other people say Java because you can do various things, from appliances (among others, some Washing machines runs a program in Java) to videogames (the most popular, Minecraft). My advice is to get into many tutorials and see which you might like.
I already made a video about 3 resources where to get into programming, one of them is https://www.freecodecamp.org/.
Their main focus these days is Javascript, as it has become the most popular language among developers:
That website is really great, there are many people saying that they got a job right after they completed some programs. Ah, it's free. I love that at the end of some chapters you have a project-oriented approach to get into something even more practical. In addition, they frequently update their exercises.
When you get the gist of it
When you are more comfortable starting small projects, I can suggest you a git to get some inspiration from this link: https://github.com/florinpop17/app-ideas
Doing practical things always helped me to make mistakes, one of the most important things to do, when programming. You will do mistakes, you will become angry, and therefore you need to manage yourself and be calm.
Probably the main reason why I'm patient is because I started 16 years ago to manage my nerves in order to correct my mistakes 😄
Conclusion
I think coding is one of the major improvement, if you can call it like that, of our civilization. It opens your mind and sets it into a "creation" mode, where everything is made from you and
I sincerely feel blessed that someone reached here. Thank you.
For this reason I will send a very little gift to everyone that send me a reply to this email ❤️
Have a great Sunday, or a Great Day!
Alessandro