The tech industry has seen a lot of development in the last 2 years in the likes of social and mobile apps. A lot of developers sprung onto the scene building apps on web and mobile platforms. I was quite inspired myself and I had ideas, but did not know how to build them. Even at my workplace, I took time to understand the technical stuff. The need to learn code became as important as reading and writing. It gives a sense of empowerment and enlightenment that I can build or work through my idea instead of depending on an external source, after all it is like learning a new skill. In this new day and age, code-literacy is becoming a competency and mostly an increasing professional requirement. Not only that, living in silicon valley, experiencing all the tech innovations around also put a certain amount of pressure to learn and understand it. Many a time I have realised that I could have completed a certain task much quickly and efficiently had I known the program to improve that process. In my previous job, one of my daily tasks was to analyse data. It usually took several minutes to port that data from the back end tool to an Excel sheet and then played around with the data until I was able to derive meaningful analysis. Had I known a database language like SQL or Excel macros, data crunching would have been much more easier and I didn't have to wait for an engineer to pass on that sorted out data to me. I could provide effective information and figured things on my own instead of running to the developers for small issues and this would have saved a lot of time. Especially in the competent startup world, where time is money, it is a huge deal. I have also realised that programing makes you think. Some food for the brain in our day-to-day busy lives. There is an algorithmic approach, which involves breaking down the issue to discrete tasks and make the process flow efficient. Collaboration with other existing processes becomes easier. Knowing how code works also gives an advantage when communicating with the dev and product teams. You will have a better idea on their approach towards the product and improves the overall communication with them.
With so much happening around, I pledge to learn code this year. If it is not now then it is never. Online sites like Udemy, Coursera, Codeacademy, MIT Open Courseware offer a lot of beginner courses, even better they are all free. I signed up and made a commitment to at least spend an hour a day to learn a programming language. I keep reading how a programming skill has helped someone get a job or even do better at their job, how schools are creating awareness and urging kids to take up code lessons and these stories always motivate me to take it up seriously.
Posted via email from Manu's
