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Please don’t learn to code

• jlg23 10y ago
  This article reads like an amateur-gardener complaining about how hard it is to grow orchids. > Selling coding as a ticket to economic salvation for the masses is dishonest. Most of the articles I've read and discussions I've had about "learn to code" emphasized that the goal is not to become an engineer but simply to develop algorithmic thinking in order to have a basic understanding how a lot of things work in a computerized world. > It took me more than a year of self-taught study before I got a freelance gig. Either the OP is a genius or delusional. I had the privilege to learn from some very, very good engineers and all of them felt not being worth a salary for the first decade. It took me 15 years to refuse low-paid jobs because I was confident enough to say "My time is worth more than that." > Do they keep coding in what is quickly becoming the language of lesser choice, or do they start again? If you’re a young twenty-something, this may pose little difficulty, but if you’re taking care of a family — with bills to pay and mouths to feed — the task becomes Herculean. [Yes, I am quoting out of order here]. And if you really understand what you are doing - i.e. you really are an engineer - then it's merely reading and meditating on specs for a week or two and a few more weeks of retraining muscle memory.