Code for Change: How Your Coding Skills Can Make a Real Difference in the World

"Learning to code is useful no matter what your career ambitions are." - Arianna Huffington

No matter what age you are, or how you identify as, you should learn to code. If you're unsure why you should learn to code, or if you're already into coding but need some new motivation, read on!

A creative outlet

One of the biggest things it can do for you is to be a creative outlet. You might think, how can staring at a screen typing strange-looking documents can be a creative outlet? And that'd be a valid question, it's not the same as drawing or painting. But writing code requires a lot of creativity and problem-solving skills.

Coding is a way of expressing yourself, it's an art. As an experienced coder, I can tell you that it's a pleasure to look at well-written and well-functioning code. It takes serious creative effort to do this.

Become a better thinker

If something takes effort you'll automatically become a better person. As with everything, the more you do it, the better you get at it. Coding is incredible at tickling your brain and making it work a bit harder. This in turn has the added benefit of making you a better thinker.

First of all, you'll become an expert at solving problems. The way you have to use your brain to tackle certain coding problems can also be applied to solving other real-world problems.

Second, since writing code is all about logic your logical thinking and reasoning will improve massively. You'll start seeing life in a bunch of "if else's".

Last but not least, your critical thinking will improve.

Understand the world around you a bit better

Becoming a better thinker will help you understand the world around you better. You'll start asking more questions about why things are the way they are. Because you're so used to thinking deeper than just the surface level.

But even if we just think about the technology in this world. Learning how to code will help you understand technology better. If you're coding a website, you'll learn how the internet works, you might learn how websites are tracking you, and you can learn how to protect yourself and the people around you from it. If you're developing a game, you'll gain some new respect for the games out there right now, the tech behind it, and the people who made it.

Change the world

You have likely had dreams and goals related to changing the world. With coding, you can make a lasting impact on other people's lives even from the comfort of your own home. Maybe you develop a small tool that someone needs. Maybe you'll develop a fun little game that brightens someone's day. Or maybe you'll work on something bigger, like the next breakthrough in artificial intelligence usage for detecting early stages of cancer development. You could save someone's life.

No matter how big or small your projects are, they can and will help someone out eventually.

Upgrade your career

It doesn't matter what career you are in, learning how to code has enormous effects on it because it changes the way you think. You might be able to utilize your new coding skills to automate certain processes, leaving you time to do other things. Either more free time for yourself or more free time to work on other things and make you a better employee. This could lead to bigger pay or a new promotion. Or if you want, switch jobs together in the world of tech.

Overall, you'll find that learning to code will have enormous effects on your life and everything you do. It doesn't matter what you do, where you're from or what you look like, if you can find a bit of time every day or every other day to learn to code you'll find that it will benefit you in the long term.

I hope this post has inspired you to pick up coding as a hobby, or if you're already into coding to double down on it.

That's it now, have a lovely day!