Why it's too late to study to become a programmer

So, you looked at a young neighbor-programmer who already has his own apartment and car, or saw some Hollywood movie with successful rich people IT specialists and decided that you want to become a programmer and earn a lot of money sitting with a laptop next to the pool?

Maybe you should think about it again because the idea of being a programmer is becoming oversold... What do I mean? The thing is, from well-known tech entrepreneurs to podcast guests and VC posts, it's being said everywhere that you need to "go to IT"...  Today, everyone (excessively) sell the dream of becoming a programmer.

The fact is that the profession of “programmer” will disappear in 12 months. This was stated by Claude, the CEO of one of the code-writing neural networks. According to him, in just 3–6 months, 90% of program code will be generated by AI, and in a year – almost 100%. He may be exaggerating a bit, and in reality, things won’t be quite that bad in the coming year, but the fact remains that over the next 2–3 years, the profession of “programmer” will change. Most likely, in most cases, “IT pros” will be on par with people in other professions—rather than being seen as some kind of elite—and the profession itself will no longer be as prestigious as it was just a couple of years ago.

Recently, Doberman.media columnist Egor Kaleinik wrote the article “From the Factory to IT: A Brief Guide for a Beginner ‘IT Guy’ in 2024,” in which he discussed in detail many modern men who have never worked in IT but often think about quitting their jobs to go into IT [читать мнение Егора].

I will continue Egor's thought. In this post, I recommend running away from the IT field while you still have the opportunity. And here's why....

Coding is difficult

It will take you a long time to learn how to code. Of course, anyone can Google an example of a "hello world" for the language of their choice and compile or publish it, but the transition to a full-fledged working application takes much longer.

Based on this, the biggest part of software development is not the coding itself, but the process of thinking. Think about all the logic you need, sketch and flowchart,... You may be working for days or weeks before you actually type in the code letter. This is a guarantee of a headache.

You probably won't make a lot of money

Все думают, что программисты зарабатывают большие деньги и купаются в долларовых купюрах, в то время как на самом деле результаты могут отличаться. Только 1% лучших программистов работают в какой-то крупной технологической компании в Силиконовой долине, зарабатывая заветные “6 fig”, платя ежемесячную арендную плату в размере 10 тыс.

And now that hiring in tech is based on the color of your skin or what's between your legs (And how do you feel about it) rather than merit, there is no longer the honor of working there, you are probably better off working for a small company in a small town, earning a decent salary without overpaying for your services.

In fact, the world doesn't need that many programmers

There was an idea that in the future, everything would be automated, and the only jobs left would be coding jobs, while everything else would be done by robots and AI.

We're not going to "code everything." In fact, we program less and less. Which brings us to the next point.

You don't need to code to build

You don't need to code to start a blog or website, you just put WordPress with one click. That's it! Done! You don't need to code to open an online store, you just install Shopify. You don't need code to build most things, there are tools nocode and a bunch of external tools that you can link to them.

As mentioned earlier, development is not about writing code. It's conceptual thinking, designing an architecture and building it using nocode tools and external APIs, without a single line of code.

Remote work

How about sitting next to the pool with your laptop? 

Again, you may have bought the dream over. In practice, not many programmers will be allowed to work from home, and there are good reasons to be reluctant to work outside anyway. Try it once and you'll want to have a quiet, air-conditioned office.

Covid is over and all the companies wanted us back to the office. If you really want to live a "remote" lifestyle, then you need to work as a freelancer or, better yet, become an entrepreneur, then you won't need to ask permission from another adult to go to the bathroom.

There is no "I" in coding (wait, wait...)

Programming is a team sport. Like football, or basketball. If you work for a company (Except maybe for a small family company, but they'll just outsource it to a larger company), you'll be working on large projects with multiple people, and you'll have your own specific role at Groundhog every day.

If you wanted to, you'd already be doing it

Perhaps this is the best reason of all. If you really wanted to be a programmer no matter what, you'd have been doing it as a hobby since you were a teenager (and eventually succeeded in it without even trying.). You can't force yourself to love something, and if you do something you hate over and over again, you'll never do well.

If you really wanted to be a programmer, you would probably already be a programmer. Don't do it for the sake of wealth. Don't do it for the sake of the "programmer lifestyle", there is no such way of life. There's just some dude and his keyboard. You can only hate it or love it.

"I still want to be a programmer" ...

So, still thinking about learning to code? Well, don't.

When I was a teenager, The Matrix came out, and everyone wanted to be hackers. Boredom is overrated, maybe you're one of the few people who really loves coding, but if you were, you'd already be doing it instead of reading this article (or maybe you'd read it with irony). If you want a cool lifestyle and earn 6 lemons, you're probably better off starting an online business.

And if you just want to code and not care about money, there are options as an independent developer creating small projects. Most likely, there is nothing special about this (although you could come up with a new Angry Birds), but you will have a remote job, and then, doing what you love, you will sit next to the pool.