In all seriousness, programming can be a gateway to turning your thoughts into reality. Many years ago, inspired by wanting to make games like the ones I was playing as a kid, I was fortunate enough to have an older student teach me some basics and get me started. This really changed my life and set me up for career success. I learned a valuable and powerful skill as I figured out how to craft ideas into apps.

Did I make any games like I wanted to? A few.

Did I have fun? Of course, at times. Other times things were very frustrating and I even considered quitting.

I don’t want to sugarcoat things. Programming can be really hard. For every advertisement you see about learning to code and get a great job in just a few short months there is someone out there who tried to learn to code and hated it and dropped out. It’s not something that’s impossible or not doable for the average person, it’s just sometimes hard and unrewarding as the littlest thing you need to fix could take much more time than you want it to, keeping you from the fun stuff you actually want to make.

It is a trade that takes discipline. There are lots of times where you make something really cool and get to show it off but then tons of others where you need to make a bunch of changes that don’t even impact what your users are seeing. You know the work is complete and the code is better, but no one else may ever realize that.

Coding definitely comes down to the 80/20 rule: 80 percent of the reward comes from 20 percent of the work. You will get most of your good feelings and reward up front and then as you polish it will get harder and harder to stay motivated. Programmers have lots of unfinished projects for this reason.

Don’t worry, though. I’m not trying to dissuade anyone from learning! Coding is a great creative outlet that can encourage you to learn a ton of supporting skills like design and animation and really build your confidence. Getting started is easy these days and is straight-forward enough anyone can do it, but it’s up to you to stick with it through some of the less fun times to make sure you understand the theory enough to make the awesome things in your head.

Let me clear up some misconceptions:

“I’m bad at math. I can’t be a programmer without tons of math.” This one I hear lots, and it is definitely not true. Sure, I know lots of math, but I only had to learn it because the college I was at told me to learn it. I haven’t used hardly any of it actually in my career at big companies as a programmer. I’m not trying to imply that there aren’t coders out there who need a ton of math, just that the ones that do are few and far between. If you’ve got some basic math skills you will do fine and go a long way. Math is scary but don’t let not knowing it scare you off.

“You need a really good computer to program on.” If the kids in the 80s learning how to program could do it on machines that make your cell phone look like a galaxy brain supercomputer, I’m sure you have a device to do it and you’re probably reading this on one right now. You can even learn how to program on your phone! The times have changed and you shouldn’t let hardware hold you back.

“I’m just not very smart.” Lots of programmers aren’t very smart. There are definitely the stand-out coders out there but the average programmer is just someone who decided to learn and who stuck with it. Have some confidence and let’s make something together.

“I need a college degree to get a job as a programmer!” No you don’t, silly. I don’t have one! I decided to not finish my Bachelor’s and it was the best decision I ever made. Universities are out here to make money and because of that they have you take a ton of courses in unrelated topics just to fill space in the time it is supposed to take you to graduate. I even took a class on Marriage! 🤔

Think about it this way: would just having an art degree get you a job as an artist? Would just having a music degree get you a spot in a band? Coding is a creative trade where you make creative works and because of that a portfolio is most important. I have hired quite a few programmers without degrees because I liked seeing what personal projects they made in the past and they were able to answer my questions really well during an interview. Wouldn’t you hire someone to play the guitar for your band if they played a really awesome set of songs for you, even if they didn’t have a music degree? Companies have definitely woken up and stopped worrying about a piece of paper. The only thing stopping you from a life as a programmer is just not being able to pass an interview yet.

And I say “yet” because it’s something we’re going to learn together. Stay creative and let’s get to learning.