You have a license to code

One of the coolest things about software development is that you don’t need anyone’s permission to do it. If you need an application for your business or personal use, there isn’t a single thing stopping you from learning to code and writing it yourself. There’s no trade organization or governing body to seek approval from. Now, if you want to practice law, or issue drug prescriptions, or even cut hair, you have to get permission from some government entity. But if you want to write the next viral application used by millions, you can just fire up your computer and start building. Nobody is going to stop you.And more importantly, no one should stop you.

You don’t need a CS degree

Nor do you need to go to college to write code. For many professions, college and professional degrees are required. Sure, you could get a computer science degree, but I hold the somewhat contrary view that a CS degree isn’t nearly as valuable — or useful — as one might hope. It is an expensive way to learn something that you could teach yourself in a much shorter period of time. One can easily become a coding expert by watching YouTube videos, reading blogs, and looking at well-written code on GitHub. 

In addition, a computer science degree normally doesn’t teach you many things you need to know to write code professionally. A CS student will learn about writing compilers and all kinds of grand theories about artificial intelligence, but probably not about the intricacies of Git and GitHub, or about how to write a good bug report.   Standard algorithms and data structures are good to know, but the average developer doesn’t often write them. Few businesses will want you to spend time writing a doubly linked list when there is one ready to go in some standard library.

A much better solution these days would be a coding bootcamp. Cheaper, faster, and far more practical, bootcamps are the market response to what businesses need. They teach the actual skills that many (most?) software development shops are looking for today: JavaScript, TypeScript, React, HTML, CSS, Git, requirements gathering, and other “meta-programming” skills like bug reports and agile development.

This utter lack of control from higher authority comes from a simple fact: code is free and untameable. Not free like free beer, but free like the wind. You can’t stop someone from writing code. Any seven-year-old can build a game using Scratch or Python or Minecraft. Shoot, there are probably seven-year-olds writing better Python code than you or me. Your grandfather can break out Visual Studio Code and build a tool to track his stamp collection. I suppose that someone somewhere could try to regulate coding, but it seems like trying to bottle up chutzpah — it can’t be done. 

This is true because no one can define the right way to build something in software, at least not in the same way we can define the right way to build a house or write a legally binding contract. I can’t imagine trying to impose a government-mandated set of rules for proper coding. It would be a disaster.

You don’t need a procedures manual

There is no “proper way” to code something, just like there is no proper way to paint a painting. Hand 100 teams the exact same design specification and you will get 100 wildly different implementations. Imagine telling Michelangelo, “No, I’m sorry, but that Sistine Chapel thing you did doesn’t conform to proper painting procedures and has to be redone under the supervision of our government inspector.” Yeah, right

I can’t imagine what trying to regulate software would do to innovation. Things move so fast in the software development world that no regulatory body could possibly keep up, and such an entity would almost certainly stifle any attempt to rapidly advance the industry. It seems obvious that the rapid rate of innovation comes as a result of the freedom software developers have to experiment with new ideas.

It’s never been a better time to be a smart, capable person. Eight hundred years ago, if you were ambitious, you had to get permission from a guild to do a long apprenticeship with a craftsman before you were allowed to strike out on your own.

Now? You can be up and running and learning and producing in a matter of hours. There’s nothing holding you back. While we all stand on the shoulders of giants, many of those giants started out creating things without any formal education. They just built the stuff that today enables us to be a coder if we want. 

So go ahead — code like the wind.