Why learn to code?

Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey, founders of Microsoft, Facebook and Twitter respectively, have gone on record advocating the importance of teaching and learning computer coding in schools. They are promoting, www.code.org, a nonprofit foundation created to help computer programming education grow. I agree. It makes absolute sense.

Computer programmers are in demand. Business majors are not. Political science majors are not. Music majors are not. Communication majors are not either. Why? Because we have become a world of computers, smartphones - and microprocessor controlled cars, appliances, score boards, trains, airplanes, ATM machines and more The list of devices that use microprocessors to automate our daily lives is growing steadily.  All these devices run on programs written by computer programmers. Understanding computer coding should be required for graduation from high school and no business school graduate should able to graduate without being able to write computer code to solve certain business problems.

Computer coding is no different than requiring competence in finance.  It is more important for business success than competence in marketing. The challenge is just getting people used to the idea that coding is a critical skill for understanding how things work just like understanding a financial statement is critical for understanding how business profits are measured. Coding is not just for nerds, it is for everyone in a computer dominated society.

My advice to all. If you have some time on your hands, learn to code. It may give you a real thrill to learn how to control the device that has been controlling you. One of the first exercises in Java is to get your computer to display "Hello World." I have done it and it is eye opening.

You are never too young or too old to start. Five hundred million smartphones need programmers to make them smart.