29 Jan 2013
Belle

Why I'm learning to code

Everyone has their own methods and reasons for learning to code. These are mine:

1. To better understand the place I work and live

I work on the web. And, like most web workers, I live here as well. I share my life through pictures on Instagram, words on Twitter and events on Facebook. Then I go to work and spend my time reading Quora and Prismatic, and writing blog posts.

And yet, I have essentially no idea how these things work. When I take a photo, I have no clue what it takes to make it show up in someone else’s stream on Instagram.

This is simply ignorance, and I’m determined to change it. After all, there comes a point in life when ignorance is no longer endearing. For me, that point was about five years ago, so it’s time I did something about it.

When you work on the web, you end up in amongst the culture of developers whether you want to or not. Since they build the places you spend all your time, this isn’t too surprising. And it’s not a bad thing—but it does bring to light your ignorance if you don’t understand their world. And it can make you feel rather like you don’t fit in.

Well, I’m only human after all, so I want to fit in. I want to understand what’s going on all around me.

2. To become a creator, rather than a consumer

Create more than you consume, says John Muldoon. This is the way to make a positive contribution to the world, and to use your time wisely. This doesn’t necessarily mean learning to code, but for me it’s related. The idea of being a consumer only—relegated to one side of the tech industry by necessity, rather than choice—is not a notion I’m keen to entertain.

In this TED talk, Ryan Henson Creighton puts forward the argument that children should be taught to create tech rather than just observing or consuming it. I think this also applies to everyone who missed the opportunity of learning to code as a child, which includes me.

3. To make my life better

I got my first MacBook recently, and when I realized the potential of how customizing my Mac could affect my workflow and my daily habits, my mind was blown.

Here are some examples of what I mean:

  • I’m using Lingon 3 to run Brett Terpstra’s Slogger every day and save my tweets, photos and what I’m reading and listening to as Day One journal entries. I don’t do anything to this—now that it’s set up, it runs automatically.
  • I have a text file where I save blog topic ideas as a list. Now I’ve set up a keyboard shortcut that takes the next topic on that list, pastes it into a new document in Byword and enters full screen mode so I can just start typing.

Automating processes and creating shortcuts is normal practice in the world of a developer, but these little things changed my perspective entirely. I suddenly saw the possibilities of how much more efficient my life and my workday could be if I could write these scripts and programs myself.

I’m a little braver than I used to be—I’m not totally scared of installing programs or running scripts in the terminal, but I do spend far more time than I’d like to finding and fixing (or simply despairing at) mistakes I’ve made in the process. This is something I want to change.

There are loads of benefits that come from learning to code, but the benefits will be there regardless. The reasons for learning are what will keep you motivated to truly understand the languages of the web.

Want to tell us why you’re learning to code? Hit us up on Twitter or Facebook. And if you haven’t started learning yet, you can sign up with us at Hello Code.