Everyone Should Learn How to Code This Year, and Here's Why

Back in December, you probably made all sorts of promises to yourself about eating healthier, getting in shape or finally finishing that one project of yours in the coming year. Now it’s the end of January, and whether or not you’re having doubts about any of those commitments, here’s something that everyone — and I mean everyone — should be adding to their list: Learn how to code.

I’m not merely suggesting that programming is a ‘handy’ skill to have — it goes far beyond that. With digital applications becoming an inescapable framework for the choices we make every single day, knowing how to code is already starting to mean the difference between using software, and being used by it.

In his insightful survival handbook, Program or Be Programmed, Douglas Rushkoff reveals the many dangers of a read-only digital culture — from becoming enslaved to the various pings, cell phone vibrations and electronic notifications of an always-on, time-independent machine network to regimenting our lives around the discrete choices offered to us by drop-down menus and app marketplaces, the call to program has never been louder.

Remember, those discrete choices do not represent reality, but a simulation of reality. Furthermore, they are simulations offered by entities like Facebook, Google and others, meaning that when we use that software, we are surrendering to the models that they have created, and building our lives around them. As a result, our output increasingly becomes a reflection of the software and networks we’re wired to, trapped within a shrinking box of machine-defined options and labels.

In the information era, ubiquitous digital devices are carrying people out of the realm of traditional computing and into highly controlled, special-use software platforms. Author and critic Cory Doctorow has called it the first signs of a coming war on general purpose computing where these platforms, along with overreaching and flawed copyright law, will seek to turn computers and networking back into a read-only medium.

It doesn’t have to be this way. In a sense, knowing how to program is like having a voice where most others can only listen — and if this war comes to fruition, a powerful weapon. If more of us could code, the software and networks we are building would be a more accurate representation of all of us, not merely our reflection in the search engine / social media looking glass.

Computer programming looks daunting to the average person, but it’s based in a few very easy to understand concepts. After all, a program is just a set of instructions that then gets compiled (translated) in a way machines can read. Everything in between is learned by doing it yourself, and there are an increasing number of resources that can help you do just that.

Codeacademy is one notable example, offering a full hands-on intro to programming Javascript that they can even mail to you in bi-weekly segments if you like. There’s also Google Code University, Lifehacker’s beginner’s guide, an online course at Stanford … the list goes on and on, and they’re all free.

The important part is, even if you develop a basic understanding of how code is written this year, you’re giving yourself an important advantage in dealing with the networks and machines that dominate every facet of our reality. It’s ultimately what’s going to determine who will be helping build our future networks, and who will be hanging back in the bleachers.