Learn to code, but don’t quit your day job
Given the ever-expanding role of software in our lives, it shouldn’t be too difficult to ascertain why so many people have been exuberantly advocating learning computer programming recently. This idea that everyone should learn to code — practiced at new websites like Codeacademy and preached by media cheerleaders like Douglas Rushkoff and Tim O’Reilly — has become practically meme-like. At its best, it has sparked a long-overdue conversation about the importance of understanding and participating in the complex systems being built around us. But the philosophy recently found an interesting opponent in noted programmer and blogger Jeff Atwood, who earlier this week argued the contrary: that average folks shouldn’t bother learning to code, unless they’re planning on making a career out of it.
