So Much for ‘Learn to Code’

"Learn to Code" was never a good suggestion. I've met so so so many people who are late-stage career changers (people in their 40s or later) who were laid off and told to learn React and get a job doing that. I've seen construction workers, truckers, retail workers, people with business degrees, stay-at-home moms, grocery store butchers, and other people who have no experience or interest working in technology who think they can just force themselves to care enough about the field to learn the requisite skills to get a job. I've seen this work occasionally but the majority of people who go through job retraining facilities end up with useless certificates and no job.

But telling tens of millions of Americans to force themselves to learn a skillset they hate so that 1% of them can get a white collar job is a terrible way to build an economy. Schools try to teach kids to code in kindergarten now on the off chance that the top 10% of performers will end up in STEM, and then the other 90% just have... a useless set of a skills and have to figure something out for themselves when they turn 18.

I'm the other-way guy. Got started in computing around 1978 and by 1980, still a kid, was full time in installation of CP/M systems, then PCs and LANs spanning ARCnet to 100baseT. Even a stint at the phone company programming for IBM S/38. This led to Internet ISP administration in the 90s with BSD/OS and Red Hat. Even maintained a top level CC domain for awhile. Software from early Z80, CBASIC and dBASE through C++. In 2000 I was earning 50k/yr which was good by local standards.

But in 2003 I was called to help with a family printing business. It broke the cycle and I realized I loved computer challenges personally, but not necessarily the challenges that are presented to you as part of a technology organization.

Up to today I have done other things for a living including Public Works construction and factory work. It requires skill and attention but can be menial work with long hours. But my idle thoughts are my own and time away from the keyboard is spent thinking of new approaches and solutions to problems.

So I have become a computer hobbyist, just working on projects I enjoy.

The learn to code nonsense was a complete doomed from the start and was a result of the zero interest rate phenomenon alongside the accelerated AI race to zero.

All the new entrants and the expensive senior folks doing the low-hanging fruit such as typical frontend UI, data collection and data science work are almost certainly expendable and are the main targets in the ChatGPT age. Everyone else left in the middle and in other areas have time to switch to something less trivial in the tech industry later.

Learn to adapt.

This article took a turn for the best. Nearly three-quarters of the way in, I was irritated that another "haha cs majors, you're not as slick as you think you are" post had spawned. Instead, the author notes something of intrigue: thinking, adapting, questioning, and forming connections between concepts are going to be increasing in importance. It's less important to know specifics in a given language or technology than ever before.

learn to come to the office and read stale confluence and fight jenkins and manage contractors in mexico/bangalore and update production jars with no source.

code is the easy part i never actually get to do. ai cant do my job and neither can someone who only knows how to build a shitty to-do list webapp.

ai is a force multiplier not a leveller.