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Comment by jes5199 | Hacker News Reader

Well, is writing code the new literacy? Most people in the west can read and write at some level, even if they never write a novel. The future might be like that with code - there are signs of it, where knowing how to write a little script or a SQL query can make a huge difference in plenty of different fields

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I think not. Human computer interaction is moving farther AWAY from this in my view. Note that the most popular consumer devices (phones and tablets) don't allow any way for the user to really accomplish this and actually require a second device to build programs.

John Siracusa talks about this very thing on the latest Hypercritical [1]. Most people, while they could learn to code, have no desire or future being terribly proficient at it. The mindset and critical thinking is not how most people want to spend their time.

[1] http://5by5.tv/hypercritical/48

This is an interesting point and one I haven't thought of like this. The past year, I kept telling people to start learning to program, because there will be an unprecedented increase in demand for programmers and knowing how to program (even just a little bit) will be greatly beneficial no matter in what line of life you are in.

But can it come to the point where if you can't code, you get left behind? It might not be so farfetched.

Or, the more people who can code, the less valuable the skill? Meh, or not.

Maybe it's not supply & demand, but a network effect:

For reading, I would argue the ability to read become more valuable as the literacy rate increases, as society starts to run on the written word.

Perhaps computer literacy is the same.

That's interesting. When would you use a supply & demand model versus network effects to explain a trend?

The more people who can code, the more demand there will be for advanced training from experienced coders. The hackers of today will be the teachers of tomorrow :)

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