To code or not to code?

Why and when “not to code“.

For the last 5 years of my life, I have been learning to code on and off during my “free time”, I managed to learn a bit of javascript, python and swift, and with that I was able to build a couple websites & an app, yes thats it, that’s what my limited skills and time allowed me to do.
At the same time I have followed along those years so many of you learning to code from scratch, getting into boot camps, 100 days of code challenges, changing careers and landing awesome jobs as software developers. I have been inspired and so happy to see the impact that learning to code can have in people’s lives.

In other cases like mine, people already had careers they loved, and were learning to code just to grow the understanding on: how software gets build, structured thinking processes, project management and so on, but it was never their objective to actually become an fulltime software developer.
Whether you already knew it or you discovered it on your own learning path; becoming a good software developer requires (like in any other career path) focus, dedication, thousands of practice hours, people to learn from and a continuous learning mindset.

So if you have a fulfilling career that satisfies you both in enjoyment and compensation, then you are lucky enough to not require a complete career path change, therefore learning to code while is still recommended because it gives you a way better understanding on how software solutions are build, doing it for too long might take your focus away from your career path. In this case the answer would be: not to code. 🙂

And if you need software solutions then hire the awesome developers that have invested the time, effort and sacrifices to learn and become good so they can build quality software.

But if you learn a bit and feel passionate about it and realize that you would like to do that for living then go for it! The clear answer is: to code!
The world needs more software developers so if you put in the time and effort I can almost guarantee you a well payed career path.

Here my more personal insights on my context. –> Podcast: Intimate business : to code or not to code?

I hope this clears up some of the questions I have received on my DMs about learning to code, if you are on the pool of people wanting to focus 150% and actually want to become a good software developer here are some resources on where to start:

5 Steps to start learning to code

Platforms to learn to code for free (I would recommend freecodecamp above all)

What are your thoughts?
To code or not to code?