Programming Is Not For Everyone

Programming is not for everyone. These organizations, such as code.org can try to get certain types of people to code, but at the end of the day, if you are not driven enough, there isn’t enough code in the world that can save you. Programming requires a lot of mental focus, creativity, days, months, years, an extreme amount of patience, and courage to push through all the challenges that come with it. It will consume you with the ever-ending fast changes that come in this industry every single year. If you are not on your toes, then you will be obsolete in a matter of months. Surely if you have the drive to learn, then this may be an excellent fit for you. I am not saying this to scare potential programmers away, I am sharing to keep them informed of what to expect. I am an independent app developer so I handle all the issues alone. However, most people will probably have a team of coders, making life a little better. There is a no-brainer why most coders are males because of the complexity and challenges that come with it. If you do have a team, make sure they provide results, or you’ll end up doing all the work yourself, and being solo might be a better solution for you anyways. Indie coders can be more productive than a team of coders. 

“What one programmer can do in one month, two programmers can do in two months.” -Fred Brooks

I wouldn’t take for granted the ability of independent developers. They can easily outperform a team of coders if they have a strong desire to do so. Your team may have the manpower, but the indie developer has perseverance.

Change your mindset

I attended a tech meetup in Austin, Texas, back in 2019 where the speaker was telling everyone not to work more than 8 hours a day at their jobs. He was more concerned about his salary than his results. I am all for this, but when it comes to coding, if you want to be the best at your craft, it will require you to work longer than 8 hours a day, my friend. We don’t achieve excellence in a mindset of a minimum wage thinker. There’s a phrase that always stuck with me when watching the Transformers movies, “No sacrifice, no victory” if things came to us easily, then what would be the joy of achieving goals or overcoming challenges? We may even lose motivation to do anything in life if such a thing occurs. We need to face some struggles before we achieve our goals. Solving problems is what drives us, men. It’s what we do.

HTML is not a programming language

Let me be clear when I talk about programming. When I refer to programming, I’m talking about native languages such as C++, Java, C#, Objective-C, Swift, etc. I am NOT talking about HTML, CSS, Javascript, etc. These markup and script languages are so easy that a kid can learn blindfolded. The code boot camps that push out javascript kiddies are a joke. Hybrid software may be a faster way to get to market, but the user’s experience suffers in the end. Website applications can be laggy and result in a piece of software that won’t work under pressure. This is, of course, my opinion, as I’ve used several apps and have always uninstalled them within a minute of use. Also, please do not require me to sign up for an account before I even try your app, I will uninstall your app faster than I tapped on it to open it. 

Conclusion

Is programming meant for everyone? The answer to that is an absolute no. I have friends that can not even use their damn computer, let alone change the ink in the printer. These organizations may successfully teach people how to display “Hello, World” on the screen, but they have a low percentage of individuals who will thrive to the top. The ones who are good at programming are the ones who usually go out and learn it on their own. The ones who practice building their craft like a hobby. If you want to be successful, we all have to put in our blood, sweat, and tears into this. Like I said above, “No sacrifice, no victory.”

To be clear, I am at no means a better coder than anyone else. Some of my code sucks. My designs aren’t always perfect. Even experienced programmers fail. However, I am still learning every day and improving along the way. We are all human, which means mistakes happen.

The ones who succeed are the ones who put in more hours. We all need to build our craft.

“Ten thousand hours is the magic number of greatness” -Malcom Gladwell

If you are dedicated to putting in the hours and work to practice and learn to code, then I’d say go for it! Don’t try to do it, don’t say you will think about it, go do it and make it happen. 

Good luck!