Readers born in the early 80s and earlier are more likely to understand the title of this piece. Until the late 90s, a typewriting course was something all students were advised to do on the side, towards the end of school or during graduation as it was considered to be a skill that remarkably increased your value in the job market. Knowing to type greatly improved your chances of finding employment.
My father had advised me against doing a typewriting course as he had the foresight to know that computers were going to change the way workplaces across domains will function and that typing will no longer be seen as a special skill. I agreed with him and did not formally learn typewriting. However, just as he anticipated, today I type at a high-speed without looking at the keyboard. Typing is second nature to anyone who has used a personal computer or laptop to study, socialise or to work, which is pretty much all of us.
Today advancement in social networking is causing reputations to be being built and broken online whether or not we like it. This has necessitated the need for each of us to take charge of the boat and maneuver the winds precisely in a desired direction. A basic knowledge of coding equips us with the facility to build our identity online and also to make our ideas come to life be it through app development or creating a platform to showcase your work.
Generative AI can help us with the code, but even to be able to provide the right prompts we need a working knowledge of programming languages. Nearly everything now runs on digital technology and the only way to make the most of it, if not survive in it, is to learn at least the basic principles of programming code.
The parallel online universe is becoming so ubiquitous that coding may turn into a basic parameter for literacy along with math, science and language comprehension. In order to stay relevant in the coming times, no matter what our age is, it will be worth our while to invest in gaining an understanding of coding. The advancement of technology in top gear, necessitates learning programming irrespective of whether we want to pursue a career in tech. If nothing else, it helps us develop problem-solving skills and also to simply unleash our creativity.
The word ‘democratisation’ has been a common theme across the subjects pertaining to the future that I have covered. And still, this one is an unexpected one. We are entering an era that democratises software creation and IT to a wider set of people. Low-code and no-code development platforms are on the rise. These allow people with varying levels of technical expertise to build applications with minimal hand-coding.
The carpet is laid out for an exciting era of innovation and evolution with the active participation of people like you and me, by that I mean, people who categorise themselves as being non-tech. We are heading for times where being non-tech would be akin to not knowing how to calculate percentages. Yes many of us use calculators but that’s because we know how numbers work. Same applies here, while we will have the facility of assisted programming, we will still need a basic understanding of how coding works to be able to take advantage of it.
No surprise that coding is being made a part of school curriculums in recognition of this change. Those of us who didn’t cover it in school or college may need to consciously gain an understanding of programming languages in order to be able to make the most of the tech-fuelled times ahead. Knowing to code greatly improves our chances of being of continued value to our employers and also for ourselves, no matter the domain.
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