Coding is the most important skill for future jobs. It’s a skill that isn’t just relevant for the next generation of computer programmers; As more businesses and industries incorporate digital technology into their operations, a basic understanding of computer programming as a minimum requirement is becoming more important. This is particularly true for anyone who works in these industries.

I say this because computers have become a big part of our lives today; their impact can be seen in every profession and business endeavour. Regardless of your career choices, having an advanced proficiency with computers is always a good thing. Learning to code or learning to program computers means you are well above the know-how of passively using computers, and can conveniently exploit their potential as necessary.

Innovation usually happens when someone bridges two different branches of knowledge and solves a problem as a result. Computers are well suited for exactly this purpose, because programming a computer simulates the real world and software can be written to solve a myriad of real world problems

Not everyone needs to learn to code, but everyone should learn the skills and understand the mindset that good programmers have.

Why? Because they’re useful in so many other areas of life.

A Disdain for the Stagnant

Good programmers like to improve things. When they see the same thing being done over and over again, they see an opportunity to automate it, or to develop a set of rules that streamline that process, or at the very least to slightly improve the end result.

While this is a trait many (if not most) programmers possessed beforehand, there’s no doubt that programming nurtures it and allows it to flourish.

Patience, determination, and a taste for the “boring”

A huge portion of a programmers time will be spent reading documentation, reading other peoples shitty code, writing boring tests, debugging hard to find errors etc. These things almost require a sort of Zen mindset, which can also be said for any intellectual pursuit.

No matter what your profession, there will be boring/frustrating parts; programming will force you to master the boring.

The Problem Solvers Mindset

Programmers solve problems. Sure they write code, but really that code is nothing more than a series of steps for the computer to carry out that mimics the steps the programmer has solved in his/her head.

Learning to program and solving hard problems will change the way you look at problems in all aspects of life.

The Problem Solving Skill

So programming will give you a problem solvers mindset, but more importantly it will also force you to develop the problem solving skill. You’ll have to solve hard problems that can’t be solved with your current skillset, which will force you to grow and learn better methods for deconstructing problems.

Without a doubt the biggest difference I see in myself between now and the day I wrote my first line of code is in the way I approach problems. Back then, I was a scatter-brained mess hoping for some lucky genius insight to pop into my head.

Today, throw me a really hard problem and I have the knowledge, skill and confidence to break it down and solve it one piece at a time, every time.

An appreciation for the technology that runs our world

Seriously, it will humble you to understand how computers work, how many different layers of abstraction there are in software, how many different pieces have to come together just to get the letter A to appear on the screen, let alone produce something like this blog.

It’s amazing any of it even works, and at the very least you owe it to yourself to learn enough to be able to truly appreciate all of it.

Here’s to hoping you embark on your journey today!