I hear a lot of people and read a lot of articles on the virtues of learning computer programming.
From bootcamps to MOOCs, through SPOCs and other rather exotic teaching formats, the "sexyness" of learning to code is drawing more and more candidates. Sometimes people in career transition too.
But at the same time I read many articles forecasting the end of code, the death of programming with the arrival of AI.
So what, do we code? Is it pointless? Are machines going to take our Visual Studio Code, Vim or Emacs (code editors) and shove us all into coworking broom cupboards?
Hmm… 🤔.
I don't believe in the disappearance of the "IT professional" job in the coming years. After several years rubbing shoulders with IT managers, I can tell you that the AI which will think through the digital transformation of some of my clients is not for tomorrow.
But I'd like to dwell on the purpose of learning programming. In my view, this learning has one main virtue that is often underestimated, or not talked about, and that seems fundamental to me.
Computing, and programming in particular, constitutes a new language, on the same footing as Greek or Latin, Hungarian… Or, more strangely, mathematics.
These languages have no end in themselves. By the way, your child must have said it to you often: why am I learning Pythagoras? Why am I doing my multiplications by hand? Why do I have to prove things with theorems? Very often leaving parents without an answer to these questions. Why, in the end?
One possible answer (which I defend) is: "Who cares about maths!", "Who cares about Latin", and in fine (that one's easy), who cares about the language or about computing. Shocked? It's deliberate.
Our reality forces us to think about the world in an increasingly narrow way as we age; systems, prejudices, wear and tear diminish our capacity to think until we become obtuse, with no more imagination or openness, no innovation.
A cerebral and neural impoverishment. I'll spare you the speech about social media… we understand each other.
Learning, today as yesterday, means discovering and putting your brain in a state of psycho-cognitive conflict. Offering our neurons a reconfiguration, a low-level format, a cold shower.
Learning maths or a programming language allows you to consider the world, to see it from another angle. It forces you to step outside the frame, "think out of the box" as they say.
That is what we should answer to children who don't understand why they're being "taught" maths and why it's important. It's the same with learning computing and programming. In itself, the language or the tech doesn't matter. What matters is the way this learning reconfigures neural connections.
It's also why maths teachers used to give you zero when you wrote down the result without the proof. The "well-named" proof is the evidence that your brain has been correctly reconfigured, the trace that it is being transformed to describe and see the world another way.
That is the main use of maths, at any rate its base function. Seen and explained this way, you generally understand mathematics from another angle. The same mechanisms are found in reading, in the idleness that fosters imagination… etc.
You'll have understood: I am a strong advocate for learning programming, on the same footing as learning the Arts, sculpture or anything else. Curiosity, the engine of innovation and progress, only arises through these openings of the mind born of these collisions and confrontations inside our brain.
Learning to program is going to shake you up and you'll love it. The rest matters little. That is the very principle of learning and of creating intelligence.