Lesson 1. Why should you learn how to program?
After reading lesson 1, you’ll be able to
- Understand why programming matters
- Set up a plan for learning how to program
Programming is universal. No matter who you are or what you do, you can learn to write programs that can help make your life easier.
A misconception, both for veteran programmers and for people who have never programmed before, is that after you start to learn how to program, you’ll have to continue until you become a professional programmer. Likely, this misconception stems from associating programming with incredibly complex systems: your operating system, car/aviation software, artificial intelligence that learns, and many others.
I think of programming as a skill, like reading/writing, math, or cooking. You don’t have to become a best-selling author, a world-class mathematician, or a Michelin star chef. Your life significantly improves with a little bit of knowledge in each of those subjects: if you know how to read and write, you can communicate with others; if you know how to do basic calculations, you can tip appropriately at a restaurant; if you know how to follow a recipe, you can make a meal in a pinch. Knowing a little bit of programming will enable you to avoid having to rely on others to help you and will enable you to finish tasks you may want to do in a specific way more efficiently.