What does 'learn to code' mean?

[Winterfall8324]

Originally Posted by TexasLawyer2000

If you think that farming has been largely offshored, you're mistaken. Visit the US at some point and have a look around.

Farming is still a big industry. But on that note globalization and commercialization have affected farmers in their need to specialize in specific crops, invest in heavy machinery, and for third party employers to industrialize animal husbandry.

It controls there lives as much as any since diversification is harder and their spending is much more controlled by expensive loans and leases on tractors, seeds, and other such farming tools.

Not only does these stop alternative farming methods and lifestyles from being practiced, but it also makes some farmers dependent on a single foriegn market like China.

edit: more mixed farms with more crop and animal diversity would not only be good for the land, but help support more local food supply chains. But since globalization demands american farmers supply certain types of 'commodity' in bulk, this is financially difficult. Its also less efficient, but there are more important things in life than maximizing economic capital.

[Leo58]

Originally Posted by Volobjectitarian

The bottom line is that jobs and skill sets become obsolete, and people in them need to do something else if they still want a paycheck. I have had two pretty solidly paying (for their time and level of skill) skill sets that have become totally obsolete - drafting and electronics bench repair. Been employed full time, salary in both professions, but long ago when they were actual jobs.

Both careers are essentially nonexistent now. Why? AutoCAD killed drafting (when people who could draw with pens got told "learn to AutoCAD") and cheapo electronics that are mass produced took electronic repair to "cheaper to just replace" as well as miniaturizing taking solid state bench work out of human hands and only done by machines. So I actually learned to code. And in the 23 years I have been in corporate IT programming/development, I have had a few skill/knowledge sets that have gone bye bye in the name of progress. Visual form programming of fat client apps is virtually extinct, COBOL skills are basically extinct, anyone putting "whiz at Micro$oft Office skills" on their resume might as well put "whiz at standing and walking" on there as well, since the office package skills are that ubiquitous anymore. Hell, even in Data Science I have ramped up skills that disappeared the following year with some new flavor in the wind.

I think the real truth behind that pithy phrase is "learn to do something else, because..well...welcome to the rat race." It doesn't have to be technical or academic, because Mike Rowe has made a living pointing out all the solid blue collar need in this country, but if you are in a dying profession, you need to find another career that isn't dying. Pretty basic common sense really.

Excellent examples! How many people stay in one job their whole life anymore? What we need to do is educate our children with the basic skills of math and problem-solving that will allow them to adapt to changing employment trends.

However, if you've ever read "Hillbilly Elegy" you know there can be cultural impediments, such as disdain for education, that make it more difficult than it should be.

[roodd279]

Alright, I tried to catch up, but must have missed the relevant post.


I'm one of the "parts orderers" referred to earlier - an engineer. I am highly dubious of anyone that thinks anyone can learn to code. Over many years, I have met a few stellar programmers - and about six thousand that suck.



Think of everything / anything you own with a computer inside. Every see it not work right? Of course you have. Because of crappy "code." Now, the span of skill for "coders" - from debugging or scripting or editing all the way to platform development - is huuuuuuge. So lots folks could maybe find a niche. But very - very - very - few people have the discipline, the imagination, the care, and the patience to produce usable and error-free code, even at the simplest level. I see it every day. Lots of mediocre. Very little good. Hardly any great.


If you want more and more of your stuff to work like crap in the future, you know, like airplanes and cars and phones and stuff, by all means - encourage everyone to "learn to code."