Learn to code, get a job

In all honesty part of me thinks services like Codecedemy and others are a good thing and part of me thinks they may be a disservice not to their own fault. The problem is when the media starts pumping this stuff with uninformed pieces like this and sends the flood of the masses.

There may be a few people that this sets off their career into becoming a true contributor to our community but the last thing we need is a flooding in of unskilled people trying to pass themselves off as hireable. There is a lot of work to be done but we already have enough headaches trying to deal with the mediocre stuff that typically has to be repaired from outsourcing.

I guess what rubs me the wrong way is that we already have a lot widespread problems in the tech business with managers and business folks trying to degrade the skill it takes to write good software with the assumption that it will help drive down costs. The way these courses are spun feel like they may be somewhat contributory to this trend in that articles like these make our profession sound similar to going to a 6-week trucking school which does make me quite sad.

He does NOT literally mean that "Joe the plumber" should take up Java web development. Rushkoff is attempting to re-frame what it means to be a user. He wants the public to become more critical of the usage of technology and to be able to assert their intent with digital tools. His problem is with the fact that people are USED BY power structures whose influence is augmented by their mastery of technology.

By telling the non-digerati to "learn to program", Rushkoff is trying to push them towards a mastery of computing that TO THEM is effectively "programming".

I think that his intent is to arm folks for the kinds of future challenges that Cory Doctoro describes. See the "war on computation" talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUEvRyemKSg

He's making a consumer/producer dichotomy. If you can't produce software, then you are relegated to only consume it. This is true of all technologies and advances though. Lofty arguments aside the article is mostly a subtly placed ad for Codeacademy.

If you're currently living, you will be able to make it to your grave without any knowledge of programming. There's no reason to learn to code if you don't want to. Sure, you won't be able to take advantage of many things that technology offers, but that won't seriously degrade your standard of living to the point of hopelessness.

A better bit of advice would be "Learn to understand systems, get a job".

"much less the months of effort they'd need to become proficient"

Simply amazing.