College & Careers

My 14 year old asks if there's any point learning to code now. I write software for a living and had no good answer

mango_bottle_4056

He asked it at dinner, quite seriously. His friends are saying AI will write all the code by the time they finish college, so why bother. I design cloud systems all day. I should have had an answer. I said something about logic and problem solving and he looked at me like I was reading from a brochure. He's in class 9 this year, no fixed career ideas yet. I don't want to push him into coding classes, but I also don't want him to drop the idea because of something his friends heard. What would you have told him?

4 comments

  • mellow_rain_9072

    I run a software services firm, and we are still hiring. What has changed is what we hire for. We need people who can read code, understand what a program is supposed to do, and notice when it does something else. Typing it out is a smaller part than it used to be. What does he enjoy about it now, if anything? That would change my answer.

    • mango_bottle_4056

      He did block coding in class 6 and liked making small games. Since then nothing much. Lately it's mostly 'AI will just do it'.

    • mango_bottle_4056

      Showed him your comment. He asked how you learn to read code if nobody writes it any more. I fumbled again, but at least we talked for twenty minutes.

  • umber_tiffin_1206

    Same question was asked when calculators came. Arre, the point is learning to think in steps. Which language, which tool, doesn't matter.

    • pebble_bookmark_600

      Calculators didn't write essays though. I'd say learn it, just don't make it the whole plan at 14.

  • sunny_quilt_8993

    my daughter asked me the same thing about drawing last month. i didn't have an answer either. she still draws.

    • cinnamon_lantern_7761

      That's a lovely answer. My elder one dropped coding club in class 9 and picked it up again this year for a biology project. He needed it for something he cared about, and suddenly it was worth learning.

  • rose_notebook_1879

    Our business runs on software I can't read. I'd happily pay someone who can tell me when the vendor is talking nonsense. Tell him that job isn't going anywhere.

    • plum_kettle_3426

      Medicine had the same argument about imaging software. The doctors who understood how it worked were the ones who caught its mistakes. I'd tell him the same thing.

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