Programmers Aren't Superheroes

The stigma that surrounds programming is still painful. If you’re a young developer, things have got better over the past ten years, but there’s still a long way to go before code is accepted as a healthy pastime for children.

Making all students code from the age of 11 will go some way to improve digital literacy, and acceptance of young developers. If all people have a basic understanding of what the development process entails, then perhaps they would take more of an interest into what the programmers do. The people decrying the move as bad because it ‘increases competition’ should take a good, hard look at themselves. Someone learning how to do basic syntax in Visual Basic will not seriously threaten your job security. Remember, only the dedicated will continue to learn how to program at a level where it could be considered as a career option - and, quite often, the dedicated are already learning to code from ages younger than 11 anyway. Think of it this way: nearly everyone in the UK begins to learn a foreign language from ages as young as 7, but professional translators are very much still in demand.

At the same time, calling programmers ‘superheroes’ is absolutely not the way forward, especially as part of an advertisement to bring new coders into the system. The phrase ‘superhero’ makes the art seem almost mythical, and puts programming squarely out of perceptible reach for many. For those who get drawn in by the marketing, one of two things will happen.

In the first scenario, wannabe superheroes will get pissed off after writing their first “Hello World” program, and realise that the road to functional programming is a long and twisted one. For these people, they’ll decry programming as just another boring hobby (and, indeed, a hobby only done by superhuman beings).

Alternatively, they may start coding and write some programs, realise the amount of work required, and then carry on. This is fantastic! Another fork in the road lies ahead, however. Hopefully, these people will realise being able to program doesn’t make them a better person than anyone else - certainly not a ‘superhero’ by any stretch of the imagination. I’d like to think that, in the vast majority of cases, this would be the case.

However, we’re living in an entitled age, and an increasing number of young developers believe that their ability to code makes them completely entitled to all kinds of benefits, and gives them the authority to be condescending pricks to those not as experienced as them, or to those who do not code at all. “But!” I hear you cry. “Their self-esteem has been raised! It’s a good thing for the image of young developers if we have programmers being confident about themselves from an early age!”

Actually, what happens in the latter scenario is that, thanks to self-entitled developers and increasingly levels of bullshit being spewed about what developers actually do, programmers become even more isolated. How do I know this? I’ve seen it happen. If people interested in coding talk to the wrong people in my age bracket and get a snooty response (sometimes from those who hadn’t even coded 6 months ago), then that’s their opinion of programming - and programmers - negatively skewed for life. And yes, it’s happened a couple of times before. You know what? This makes me really, really sad.

I’m 16. I don’t want to be a superhero. All I want to do is build code and be happy. Surely, it should be possible to combine the two without an issue.