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I've seen many people who turn into programming as a job, mainly because they think they'll make more money if they switch career, to find out that it's not for

I've seen many people who turn into programming as a job, mainly because they think they'll make more money if they switch career, to find out that it's not for them after a few years. While I have no personal gripe against them personally (my gripe is with gov initiatives and the plethora of coding schools), and I generally encourage everyone to learn something about programming so that they feel more control about technology they use, working as a programmer / developer is definitely NOT for everyone, that is if you're interested in not having to switch careers (again) after a few years. Working as a programmer for the long run requires passion, which is a cliche, but there's some truth to that. Basically you have to enjoy it, and not just be in it _only_ for the money. I don't think this is a special trait to this professing, but I've never worked in anything else to know.

imtringued 6y ago
One should identify professions where a little bit of programming can provide value and then offer them a simple platform based on Javascript that lets them achieve simple business goals. Deployment should be trivial, not require maintaining servers and the results of the program should be easily accessible to relevant members of the organization. I am not sure which shape this sort of platform would take. It wouldn't be far off from Google spreadsheets where you can write arbitrary Javascript but that's just a starting point. People should be able to click a simple app together over the course of a single day and write code for the interactions. I know that this is very similar to no code platforms but I personally don't see the need to avoid code. The value is in avoiding the need to maintain a wide variety of skills that are merely a side effect of creating and deploying an app. Having a solid foundation in programming and databases but not in all the other skills that make software engineering "engineering", is where I see the most value. For someone who only derives value from programming, the need to learn CSS, HTML, what version control is, what testing is, how to deploy software, learn a backend framework, learn a frontend framework etc is just a barrier to entry for these individuals.

imtringued 6y ago

One should identify professions where a little bit of programming can provide value and then offer them a simple platform based on Javascript that lets them achieve simple business goals. Deployment should be trivial, not require maintaining servers and the results of the program should be easily accessible to relevant members of the organization. I am not sure which shape this sort of platform would take. It wouldn't be far off from Google spreadsheets where you can write arbitrary Javascript but that's just a starting point. People should be able to click a simple app together over the course of a single day and write code for the interactions. I know that this is very similar to no code platforms but I personally don't see the need to avoid code. The value is in avoiding the need to maintain a wide variety of skills that are merely a side effect of creating and deploying an app. Having a solid foundation in programming and databases but not in all the other skills that make software engineering "engineering", is where I see the most value. For someone who only derives value from programming, the need to learn CSS, HTML, what version control is, what testing is, how to deploy software, learn a backend framework, learn a frontend framework etc is just a barrier to entry for these individuals.