hey and welcome back to another episode
of tech lead I am the tech lead let's
see what we're drinking here stock code
brew coffee going in wow that is pretty
good it's sweet because it contains
sugar I would say this one's a little
bit too sweet for my taste so recently a
lot of people have been coming to me
trying to learn how to code I mean even
my wife has come to me trying to learn
Python and you know she wanted to make a
app or website I've seen some people
come to me asking what's the bare
minimum to be able to get into some top
tech companies like they wanted to ask
minimum work as possible to get that
minimum baseline just to be able to get
in and then from there I'm not sure
really what the goal is so my concern is
that a lot of people are not learning
coding for the right reasons and I would
encourage you to really ask yourself and
to think why are you learning coding and
if there's another path that may be more
suitable for you so that's what this
video is about it's about exploring why
you should not learn to code now the
first reason is that artificial
intelligence is getting better and
better and you see a lot of top tech
companies starting to use machine
learning to replace a lot of the
algorithms that used to be written up by
hand and what I'm trying to say is that
the AI singularity is eminent pretty
soon machines will be writing all of our
code and there won't be a single
programmer job anymore left all the
programmers will soon be out of a job
and there will be nothing left for
anybody to do when the AI singularity
hits the computer will be able to
program itself such that it is point
zero zero zero one percent better now
that doesn't sound like a lot at first
but the machine can keep repeating this
process millions of times until it
becomes very smart much smarter than
humans and then at that point the face
of humanity will face extinction there
will be a war against the machines and
we need to start preparing for that
rather than worrying about how to get a
job as a programmer you may soon have to
start worrying about how to fight how to
fight the machines how to set up
electromagnetic shields come up with
battle plans you know go completely
offline get off the grid set up your
bomb shelters and guns so I would say
that that's just one thing you really
need to think about if you're serious
about learning how to
the machines can very well turn against
you the second point is that the
importance of soft skills cannot be
understated you know being able to
communicate empathize with people
collaboration teamwork using Microsoft
Word Excel PowerPoint presentations just
being able to really talk to people
listen to them have responsibilities
these soft skills are very important for
programmers you know you can't just be
coding and in fact if you did zero
coding and only focus on soft skills
that could very well get you a job there
are some programmers who don't even code
that all they spend all of their time
empathizing and sympathizing with people
just being a shoulder to cry on and I
think that that already adds a lot to
team culture and can really help shape a
product I have heard of some programmers
who the only thing they do is route the
emails and that's enough that's
sufficient you know there's no coding
necessary to be a programmer if you just
route emails back and forth between
people and act as a middleman
communicator that's enough to already
get you a job the thing to know is that
once you become a coder the next goal is
to unbecoming over a lot of senior
engineers will take pride in being able
to say well I don't code anymore
and that's really sort of a status
symbol and it's the next big milestone
and your development as a software
engineer personally I have seen entire
teams of senior software engineers and
architects none of who code anymore
the other thing about coding is it could
just be too damn hard to do you know
like you may have to just be born to be
a coder and it's not really the sort of
thing that you can just learn like
people are born with the ability to
write C++ and if you're not born with
this talent then you just can't learn it
it's impossible you know it's just way
too hard and it could just be easier to
just give up I think for me my main
problem with learning to code is that
overnight success it's just not
guaranteed and you know that's kind of a
deal breaker for me it may be easier to
just go and either hamburger instead of
trying to learn to code something that
may not even work I mean there's going
to be bugs and then you have to fix the
bugs and then you have to go get a cup
of water and then eat some food and then
go take a nap I mean it's so much work
to do all this stuff a programmer can
the single line of code affect millions
of people the impact is massive but yet
the problem is is not face-to-face
impact so that's what makes it very
nerdy to me like I want to be able to
put on the suit combat my hair with a
lot of gel and be able to shake a
person's hand and that is how I like to
make my impact on the one-to-one basis
and that people that connection with the
person face to face is what really
counts as true impact to me if all
you're doing is typing lines of code and
infecting millions of people across the
world but you don't actually see them
face to face
then that doesn't count these computer
nerds by the way also really like to
play video games and you'll find that a
lot of programmers like playing video
games probably because it's a
cause-effect relationship playing video
games trains people to be able to star
computers and screens for long periods
of time so what you'll find is that a
lot of your co-workers may like playing
video games and software engineering
itself is kind of like a giant video
game it's like a puzzle game where
you're putting logical pieces together
so if you enjoy a career that almost
feels like playing the video game then
be my guest you can go play your stupid
little games but for me I enjoy a real
work like being able to dress up in the
suit shaking hands having very straight
direct eye contact asserting my
dominance and just being in meetings all
day that's kind of the idea of work for
me you go play your video games if
that's what you're into but other people
adults have real work to do there's also
just generally too much competition like
everybody wants to be a programmer these
days and maybe if you just didn't
compete then there would be more money
left in the pool for people like me so
that you know my salary could be a
little bit higher you know I would
probably appreciate that but at the same
time I would say that one problem for
software engineers is that the salary is
just too high and you know you don't
want to be too greedy you know it's very
capitalistic how dare you be a sellout
it's just not very cool these days to be
trying to earn more money you know maybe
do something more indie something that's
down-to-earth if you make too much money
you end up alienating people and you're
just not relatable anymore it's really
no different than being like those
bankers on Wall Street I have been an
organ
where there's two separate buildings in
Charlie one building is kind of like an
animal pen and it's for the software
engineers and then there's a separate
building entirely different and as for
the HR salespeople marketing business
operations so that building is generally
nicer people are better dressed they
look more normal
they look sociable by 5:00 p.m.
everyone's off work people go back to
their families and their social lives
and then back in the engineering
building people are still drinking Red
Bull eating pizza and playing ping pong
if your goal is to start a company you
don't really need programming for one
you can just hire the help if you need
it
the other thing is it's also very
difficult to build a separate
destination website and drive traffic to
it I think that sort of the 90s are a
way of creating companies and these days
you can launch entire companies on
Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube you
don't necessarily need your own blog or
a website anymore you could just build
your whole business on platforms like
this like it could be an entirely eBay
based business or Amazon based business
as well I see a lot of people asking
what are the minimum requirements needed
to get into a top tech company they'll
say like can I just do one side project
or zero side projects
how many language do I need to know and
I think this isn't really the right
question to be asking because you're
already starting off on the wrong foot
the problem with this sort of thinking
is when you get into some company you're
going to be the worst engineer you're
not going to be able to get promoted you
won't have a good career path because
you don't have the passion or you don't
have the interest to continue any
further your goal was to get the minimum
requirements to get into the company and
pretty soon you'll probably be fired or
if you're not fired you just be
underperforming and you won't go
anywhere in your careers so instead I
would encourage you to ask a question
like what are the minimum requirements
to become a senior engineer at company X
and make that your goal post your North
Star of where you're headed because this
is going to be a long journey and it's
not necessarily just a quick goal that
you're going to reach and then just stop
from there my last point is that coding
is just too nerdy I remember I once went
on a date and she said I was too
analytical and logical for her you don't
want to be like that you want to be
friendly sociable humans are by nature
irrational and if you learn coding you
become irrational
being and you're not able to communicate
and socialize with the rest of the
population so you want to be very
careful about that people will start
saying that you're weird
you've got Asperger's you're autistic so
I hope this clarified why you should not
get into coding if you liked this video
give it a like and subscribe it really
helps out the channel I'll see you next
time bye