From Cartwheels to Motor Cars, Airplanes to now the Self Driving Cars, we have indeed come a long way. Machines have completely taken over human labor. The mundane and repetitive work is now being carried out via machines powered by artificial intelligence.
Homes are no longer homes; they are smart homes. Self-driving cars are driving us to our desired locations. We have ushered in an era of Industrial Revolution 4.0. Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Robotics, Internet of Things are common vocabulary. We can't imagine our lives without the machines around. If we start making a list of machines in our homes and office, we will be looking at a high number.
Coding is the language through which we tell a machine what to do and how to do. Even though we see smart machines doing intelligent things daily, they are following a set of instructions given to them through certain lines of code.
Starting right from the Social Media websites like Facebook, Search Engines like Google, e- commerce sites like Amazon, flipkart, myntra, jabong etc. to each application we use on our iPhone; everything requires Code to operate. This makes the Software Developers and Programmers the modern architects of our Digital Society. If data is oil, codes are the oil wells, period.
Learning coding is like learning a foreign language; it can be fun and sometimes grueling or tricky to learn but ultimately helps in expansion of the horizons of human Intelligence.
Coding is not limited to Software Developers, Website Developers and App Programmers but the entire gamut of professional jobs is directly or indirectly dependent on it. Not only it helps us with the Technical jobs but also solidifying individual their analytical and aptitude skills. They enhance our day to day proficiency with respect to office work and personal work.
Certain examples illustrating the impact of codingare:
Data analyst: All the companies and businesses use analysis for their past performances and for the forecast of their future numbers. With the rise of Big Data and search algorithms and analysis of customer behavior companies create their strategies accordingly.
The UI/UX design and simulation: Architects and designers use a lot of tools which helps them visualise how the final website or the final design would be before even starting the work. This helps in optimization of work and reduces wastage of time and resources.
There are various jobs in medical industry, banking sector, media and journalism, architecture which are literally not related to programming but the dependency on machine usage creates a clear need for people to understand coding. The current advent of digitalisation has made coding the most important must-have-skill.
Not only it is relevant in today's fast paced global era but will also be relevant for the next various years to come. As we grow more and more with all the Industries and Businesses incorporating technology in their process, a basic knowledge of computer coding and programming becomes a bare minimum skill-to-have.
Steve Jobs said that everybody should learn coding because it teaches you how to think. CEO of Dropbox rightly points out start coding is no different from taking up a sport. It can be intimidating at first, but the journey gets smoother from there on.
People traditionally think that coding is complicated but at its core it is breaking down a big problem into small chunks. It's simplifying your life and the world around you; one code at a time. To put it simply software is all about uplifting humanity by using computer technology. What we need is to be in sync with technology, adapt with it and embrace it.
The writer is Ankush Singla, Co-Founder-CEO, Coding Ninjas