Is it still worth learning to code?

Why should we bother learning anything at all?

The question everyone seems to be asking lately is whether it’s still worth learning to code.

You can just describe what you want in plain old English, and a machine builds it for you. So what’s the point of learning how to do it yourself?

The answer depends on why you’re asking. I learned the guitar for fun; I didn’t need any more reason than that. And the same is true for coding; if you want to learn, then do.

But most people asking this question are really asking something else. They mean: is it worth it for my career?

That’s a much more interesting question. And for now, my answer is yes, for a very simple reason: a strong programmer with AI isn’t just slightly better than a beginner. They’re shockingly better. Maybe 10-20x better.¹

And that’s it. That’s the single best reason to learn to code today². You don’t learn it so you can write the code instead of the machine. You learn it so you can be exponentially better with the machine.³

But if you think about it, this isn’t unique to coding. The tide is rising everywhere: in writing, in design, in legal drafting, in medicine. The logic that asks if it’s still worth learning to code will soon ask if it’s worth learning practically anything.

So, should we bother to learn anything at all?

Nobody asks that because it sounds absurd. And it is absurd, because it assumes the only point of learning a skill is the physical act of producing the output.

But that’s not what learning is for. Or at least, it’s not all it’s for. Whether you realise it or not, you learn to develop judgement and understanding and taste. If we had to wrap these up into a single word, one candidate is discernment.

And discernment isn’t made redundant when execution gets automated. If anything, it becomes more valuable, because now it’s all you need.

The barriers to entry are getting lower by the day. Soon, anyone will be able to conjure an app, an ad campaign, or a legal contract.

Cranking out work isn’t the bottleneck anymore. But just because you get more, that doesn’t automatically mean you get better, just more.

When the doing is free, it’s discernment that counts.

AI is going to change what work looks like, it already has. But I’m pretty sure there’ll always be a place for judgement and understanding and taste. For discernment.

So, is it worth learning anything at all? More than ever.

1. I regularly see dev / data teams in large firms being left in the dust by single engineers. See my other piece: The second half of the chessboard

2. Coding here encompasses the broader suite of skills that a programmer would have (says design, architectures, etc).

3. What and how you learn is different. Focus now is on system design, architecture, trade- offs, etc. Along with hands-on projects putting these lessons into practice ASAP.