I get a lot of questions about programming but I don't think they're
the right questions to ask questions like how many languages do I need to
learn what language do I need to learn to get to company X what's the
difference between a and B and which makes more money what are the exact
steps I need to take to become Z what kind of program should I write to build
up my resume so why don't I like these questions because it feels like the
people who are asking these questions they are learning how to program just
for the sake of learning how to program but programming is just a tool being a
programmer for me means you write code to automate things or to make things
perform certain actions for example programming a refrigerator to turn on
the light when you open the door when you think about it programming is
actually kind of boring you're just giving a series of instructions to a
machine over and over again until you get it right I don't want to speak for
all of you but I think if the pay wasn't great I don't think a lot of you would
spend hours and hours every night in front of your computer trying to learn
how to code or to just debug your program sometimes we get caught up
learning languages or doing coding challenges or fantasizing about you know
working for these big tech companies that we forget why we wanted to learn
programming in the first place you wanted to program because you saw the
amazing things that can be built using programming so don't just learn how to
program build something that matters build something that means
build something that solves a problem you're a problem-solver a creator an
innovator you're not a programmer programming is just a tool in your
arsenal to build something amazing you can be analytical creative empathetic
and programming allows you to express those qualities of yourself but
programming in of itself is nothing special it's like a pencil it can mark
stuff down if you press on the pen so hard enough that's it but with a pencil
you can write novels draw beautiful portraits build plans for a skyscraper
or anything eliminated only by your imagination
you don't learn how to program to get into Google you learn how to program to
build something meaningful something that helps real people with real
problems I'm partnered with IBM today to talk
about a global initiative called call for code which calls for developers to
build something impactful and have a positive change across the world through
their code as you know there are hundreds and hundreds of natural
disasters every year like hurricanes earthquakes floods volcanoes and
wildfires those affect numerous lives and causes tremendous damage to many
families around the world if you strive for real impact we desperately need you
this is why 2018 call for code global challenge is a competition that asks
people like you to build solutions to improve what we can do to reduce
disruptive impact of these natural disasters we need all kinds of
technologies you like working on blockchains build secure supply networks
to help distribute aid to the people in need you're like AI are NLP make BOTS to
help real-time communications to them you're into data science analyze and
predict what the affected population needs before they even ask for it every
one of your project will matter and it will be for an extremely good cause now
of course it is still a competition so they have a grand prize of $200,000 not
only that the project the greatest potential impact will be implemented
with the help of IBM the new Linux Foundation the UN Human Rights and the
American Red Cross sorry offers challenge so don't forget
don't be a programmer be a problem solver
going to call for code