Why Coding?

In celebration of National Coding Week, this week we’ll be featuring blogs from our new Mayden Academy students on their interest in coding, starting today with this from Charlie…
Of all the skills that a web developer requires, coding was the aspect I was most keen to learn, and here’s why: a quick Google search will tell you that one of the most important qualities in a developer is the ability to problem solve. In the short time I’ve spent coding so far, this career cliché has turned out to be the complete truth.
What I love about coding is that code can be right or it can be wrong – either it works or it doesn’t. The satisfaction from hacking something together, no matter how simple, is in refreshing the browser and seeing a creation come together. To get to this point takes all of my cunning and guile as a learning developer – each line of code is like a Rubik’s cube, there to be attempted and solved.
Coding encourages a method of thought that I haven’t come across in any of the other industries that I’ve worked in and I’ve quickly realised that often I can be my own worst enemy. In the run up to the Academy I spent countless nights sat in front of my screen, staring at the intimidating blank developer screen and flashing underscore, awaiting a spark of inspiration to help me solve whatever problem I was currently struggling through. Those nights taught me a lesson: the approach to the problem is just as important as the execution. By leaping ahead and downloading software I didn’t know how to use fully and attempting problems that as a beginner were beyond me, I was giving myself a harder time than I needed to. In essence I shouldn’t be attempting a black run in the alps before doing my time on the nursery slopes. But I digress…
Another thing that draws me to coding is the opportunity to work in the software development industry. Whilst to an outsider looking in, the technology sector appears as an established behemoth full of complicated layers of technical knowledge, impenetrable to all those that don’t possess a computer science degree, the truth is a different story.
The world wide web is only 25 years old and in the grand scheme of things, still a young technology. It’s a rare thing to have an opportunity to participate in the early stages of a global innovation that’s dramatically impacting the way we live and moving society forward. For me the opportunity to work in the field is similar to working in aviation just after the Wright Brothers’ first flight or the printing press around the time of Gutenberg! Perhaps these comparisons seem a little far fetched, but the impact that the internet has had on society cannot be denied. To be able to be part of the movement is a dream come true!
Charlie, Mayden Academy