"Everyone Should Learn to Code" is Bullshit
Tags: beginners, career, healthydebate
Published: 2023-05-03 04:52:47

_My career-related content is now [open-source on GitHub](https://github.com/jmfayard/agentdouble.dev)_.

Deeply ingrained in the hiring practices of too much tech companies lies the basic assumption that developers, and especially junior developers, are incompetent liars until proven otherwise.

Where does that bad reputation come?

## 🤨  "I'm not against all junior devs, just the lazy entitled ones"

When I protest that the junior developers I know are not entitled incompetent liars, I usually hear something like that:

> I know what you mean, but there are some who do a bootcamp and feel entitled to start immediately a well paying job without having to put in the practice.

The ones i know are willing to put the practice, their real problem is that the gap between post bootcamp and their first job seems impossibly high.

They lack a clear career path.

But let's talk today about about the lazy entitled ones.

## 💩 Everyone should learn to code!

We hear that all the time, so I asked ChatGPT to summarise the current dogma.

Here is what I learned:

- There is a high demand for technical skills
- It opens up opportunities for high-paying jobs
- You stay ahead of technological change and future proof your career.
- It will provide an advantage in today's highly competitive job market.
- Coding is like the equivalent of reading and writing for the 21st century

That sounds good!

![Everyone should learn to code](https://share.cleanshot.com/TrTHGnMy+)


## 💡 The lazy entitled believed that and acted accordingly

What I find interesting in those arguments is that there are precisely the arguments that the lazy entitled bootcamp graduate believe.

I can't help to wonder:

> Are the real culprits the people who followed the flawed instructions?
> Or the people who gave the flawed the instructions?

Because those arguments weren't invented by ChatGPT,.
They are pushed by rich, powerful people. 
Elon Musk, Marc Zuckerberg and the other tech robber barons.

And their argument aren't technically wrong. 
But they do lie by omission.

Truth is that those people are mostly interested in having a larger pipeline of future developers making them even richer.

That you suffer in this large pipeline, wondering how to get that first job, is very much not their problem.

![Getting your first programming job is hard](https://res.cloudinary.com/practicaldev/image/fetch/s--oe0PDeFa--/c_limit%2Cf_auto%2Cfl_progressive%2Cq_auto%2Cw_880/https://i.redd.it/gtb9zmzx9jn91.jpg)


## 🥖  Everyone should be farmers, nurses, teachers, doctors

A first reason "Everyone should learn to code" is bullshit is that if we took it seriously, society would instantly stop to work. 

We still need farmers.
We will need nurses.
We still need teachers.
We still need doctors.

All those jobs are more important than programming, by a large margin.

Imagine you would have to redo society on a island with 200 persons. 
Having programmers would be low on your priority list, wouldn't it?
Personally I can live without coding, but not without food.

OK, coding has been oversold, but we are 7.888 billion human beings on Earth, so having programmers is indeed useful.

What is the larger issue?

## 🎹 Everyone should learn to play music!

Playing music is a super valuable skill in the 21st century.
Playing music was also a valuable skill in the 50 centuries since Ancient Egypt started.
Playing music will most likely continue to be a valuable skill in the coming centuries.

It's true what Nietzsche said: Life Without Music Would Be a Mistake.

So I can't help but wonder: 

> **Why isn't everyone learning to play music?**

Look at this visualisation of Franz Listz's Campanella
Surely everyone should be learning this super valuable super cool thing skill?

{% embed https://youtu.be/H1Dvg2MxQn8 %}

Why aren't people listening?

## 🙊 Because it requires a shitload of unsexy practice

It's easy to get started playing piano.
It's open to everyone and nobody will stop you.
But you can't take an easy piano bootcamp and voilà, you play La Campanella well.

There is no shortcut, just three things:

> **Practice, practice and practice**.

And for most people, playing the piano will be too frustrating for way too much time.

That doesn't make them lesser than me, that just means they will focus on something else. 

It requires a special disposition of mind that you love music so much, that you also learn to enjoy the long unsexy journey of playing La Campanella 1000 times badly
... before you play it wonderfully.

And it requires a special disposition of mind that you love programming so much, that you learn to enjoy the long unsexy journey of writing 1000 buggy badly architecture useless unused software
... before you get one very right software that makes an impact

![Programming is all about practice](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/459464/228302293-8ee2dedb-1e72-42be-a1d3-0d02ab79bad0.png)

## 🙅🏻 It's not gatekeeping

Learning to code, like learning to music, is indeed truly open to everyone.
That's something I genuinely love about programming.
You can do a master of computer science, you can do a bootcamp, you can be self taught, you can have all kind of nationalities, you can be many things:

> If you can show you are skilled at building stuff, then you belong in the IT industry.

OK, it's harder if you have the bad idea to be a woman, or considered too old, or had a "non tech" job before, but it's still possible.

By all means, we can and should continue to tell people they can try out programming.

But we should also be honest and warn that there is a very long journey between their initial discovery of programming, and becoming a professional software developer.

## 💯  Is it worth it?

Absolutely.

But not everyone will like it.

The question is not whether everyone SHOULD learn programming.

## 🤔 The real question is whether YOU really WANT to keep programming for the long term

Hi, I’m [Jean-Michel Fayard.](https://jmfayard.dev/) 

Please send my article to a friend that needs it.

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