I believe that everyone should learn to code if they are able. Perhaps a better way of saying this is that I believe that there are very few cases where learning how to code wouldn’t be beneficial. In STEM fields, it’s more obvious why coding would be useful, but I believe that it’s also immensely useful in the vast majority of humanities fields as well. For instance, in fields such as the social sciences, quantitative methods are becoming increasingly important in supporting/scrutinizing theoretical claims. Sure it’s insightful to conduct research on certain societal factors that play into outcomes within people’s lives, but I believe it’s much more powerful to be able to see them manifested in the real world.
I’m particularly fond of this quote from Kirshenbaum’s article: “Computers should not be black boxes but rather understood as engines for creating powerful and persuasive models of the world around us.” With tools this powerful at our disposal, I believe that being well-versed and knowledgeable on how to manipulate them is an invaluable skill that will make an enormous, tangible impact on any field that they’re applied to.
Now, I’ll talk about my experience. I was exposed to programming at a young age because my dad is a software engineer. He didn’t teach me how to actually code, but he instilled in me the interest in technology that I still have today. I ended up taking my first computer science class during my senior of high school: AP Computer Science, where I learned the fundamentals of object-oriented programming using Java. Once I got to Carleton, I continued taking computer science classes, starting with Intro to CS. After that, I decided I would pursue computer science as my major. From there, I’ve taken many CS and Statistics classes where I’ve gained exposure to many different technologies, including languages such as C, Javascript, and R.
Finally:
System.out.println("Just learn to code :) !!!");
