Although we're used to being told that you need to be good at maths in order to learn to code, studies by educators and psychologists prove that this isn't true. Although some people would like to have us believe that e.g. an aptitude for learning languages makes it easier to learn to code, studies show that this isn't really the case either. The truth of the matter is that anyone can learn to code. All it takes is time, effort and persistence. If you're not sure whether you believe it - read this story: https://www.wired.com/2015/11/can-you-teach-a-coal-miner-to-code/
- Because you want to make a thing, and that thing is an app, program, or requires some programming in order to work?
- Because you want to change the world and you need to code in order to do it?
- Because you want to get a better paid job, and most of the good jobs these days seem to be in tech?
There are lots of reasons why you might want to learn to code. I'm not here to judge you, your reason, whatever it is, is good enough.
- Because people have more time on their hands with the COVID-19 lockdown?
- Because you've lost your day job?
- Because if not now, when?
I'm a trained teacher: I taught students in University as a PostGrad, and I taught A-level and BTech students at Chichester College of Technology after graduating before moving to London to get a job in Industry. I've spent more than 30 years as a professional programmer, and more than 20 years of that time has been spent training, mentoring and coaching others. I founded the London Code Dojo to help professional programmers improve their programming skills, and now I'd like to help people new to programming discover what for me has been a more enjoyable, challenging and lucrative career than I could have imagined. If you want to inspect my professional resume, feel free: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nigelrm/
I don't guarantee results, you get what you pay for, and just because you're not paying cash don't think the cost will be light! You'll be paying your own time, blood, sweat and tears. Well, OK, maybe not blood, unless you accidentally stab yourself with a USB cable. I don't guarantee that it'll be easy, nothing worth doing in this life ever is. But if you stick with it, you will eventually learn, because if there's one thing that more than 30 years in industry has taught me, is that good programmers come from all sorts of backgrounds, more diverse than you could imagine, and the vast majority of those DID NOT go to university to study CompSci. You will learn, you will get it, and I and your other aspiring coders will help you along the way.
Caveat - this is an experiment, you will be, like me, a guinea pig for a new way of learning.
No, it won't make you rich - unless you join a startup and get disproportionately lucky, 99.999% of startups aren't Google or Facebook - but it is indoor work with no heavy lifting! And it pays better than 95+% of jobs these days. No more shelf-stacking at Tesco.
Me: two things:
Firstly: I care about Democracy. This, on the face of it, sounds like an odd response, we're talking about programming computers, not politics after all, but hear me out. Computers have changed the way the world works forever. I was born at a time in which computers effectively didn't exist, they were about as populous as particle colliders or space launch vehicles are today. Your phone has more compute power than all the most powerful supercomputers in the world had when I first started programming. In a very real way programming is like literacy, in the medieval ages only the very rich or privileged had books, let alone had the ability to create one. Literacy was power. In today's world, almost everyone can use a computer, but very few can programme one, at most a tiny fraction (0.3%) of the population. In much the same way as history is written by the victors, our history will be written, and created, by the people who can manipulate and control the most powerful force mankind has created. If you value democracy, your voice, your power, is in the ability to create a better future, and you can only do that if you can code.
Secondly: I want to pay it forward. Many people have helped me over the years, it would be churlish to repay their generosity by keeping it all to myself. Plus once you have kids your perception of self and society changes.
Thirdly: Lastly, and to be open with you, I'd like to create a business out of this eventually. Maybe that will work out, maybe it won't. It's an experiment after all. Yes, technically I know that's not just two reasons, but there's an old computing joke in there somewhere...
If you want to join me: email me at sleepyfox@gmail.com and I'll add you to the list of people interested in joining the first cohort.