Everyone learning to code will change society in complex ways. While coding skills should be broadly accessible, most people will only become "conversational coders", not experts. Those teaching coding need to write for broader audiences and address non-technical problems. The goal is not to make experts permanently different from novices, but to reduce inequality. Coders should focus on solving customer problems and creating value for users.

1. what happens to everyone
when everyone learns to code.
#railsconf2014 | @farrahbostic

2. Hi, I’m
@farrahbostic
!
!
I run...

3. i come from advertising.

4. “software writers.” awesome.

5. just write.
then leave it.
read it aloud.
edit.
kill your darlings.
What is
good
writing
practice?

6. The lyf so short,
the craft so longe
to lerne.
- Chaucer

7. what happens to everyone
when everyone learns to code?

8. fact: “Everybody should learn to code”

9. how to become a coder

10. 1,000,000 STEM graduates
“be a coder” in >4 years. it’ll cost you six figures.

11. “be a coder” in 10,000 hours, or 10 years, whichever comes last.

12. meanwhile…

13. We’ll let you “be a coder” in 12 weeks, give or take.

14. I’ve been working on it, too
@noahbrier
@stueccles
@jondahl
@rachelsklar
@aviflombaum

15. the truth is,
you learn to code by coding

16. Which starts out feeling like this.

17. THEN YOU FIND SOMETHING THAT FEELS LIKE THIS.

18. but then you decide to turn hard core.
Start fast.
Go hard.
Stop.

19. so how’d that work out?

20. ‘i didn’t build that’ - we did
Matz • dhh • RailsGuides • Ryan Bates • Redactor.js • Woo Themes • John Resig • Dave Methvin •
PostgreSQL • Jonas Nicklas • Corey Johnson • Heroku • GitHub • @olvado • @hjames • @cjbell88 •
@j_schelling • TypeKit • kuler • moo.com • keynote • pixelmator • slideshare • youtube • skype •
AddThis • LocomotiveCMS • sirtrevor.js • mini-magick • carrierwave • flexslider • jQuery • uistencils

21. the internet teaches you how to
create more internet.
But you’re not just learning/teaching the code,
you’re also learning/teaching the culture.

22. and maybe
that’s a little
scary.

23. interesting thought from dhh
“Professionals obey the laws.
Amateurs break them…”
But there are amateurs, and there are novices.
Novices break laws too, accidentally,
and often without even realizing it.

24. but then we meet the stack trace

26. and we end up at stack overflow
It’s great for amateurs.
We find out we’re not alone
experiencing a problem.
We get answers to our questions.
Great, right?

27. but we struggle to belong.
“It’s difficult to tell
what is being asked
here. This question is
ambiguous, vague,
incomplete, overly
broad, or rhetorical
and cannot be
reasonably answered
in its current form.”

28. stack overflow == terminus?

29. For novices & amateurs,
“coder” is a moving target.

30. ‘code inequality’
It’s good for you to be experts and
me to be a novice.
That motivates me to get better.
But the goal is not to make that
difference permanent and immutable.
That would be structural inequality -
where novices give up, amateurs
never become experts, and experts
only become more expert.
That would be bad.

31. so what?

32. technology is feeling magical again.

33. but it’s also scaring the shit out of people.

34. whose side are you on?

35. okay, let’s take a deep breath.

36. everyone should still learn to code,
right?

37. but who is everybody?
and how much do i really have to learn?

38. most code schools are teaching
most amateurs to be
(at most) conversational coders.

39. so what does that mean for you?
It means you need to be more than “just” devs.
It means you are now writing
for a much broader audience.
And solving even problems that go beyond
how to write beautiful code.

40. what about “strategy inequality”

41. forget about being an expert.
be a problem-solver.
become a customer-centric coder.

42. we’re all in this together.

43. meet the new product team.
Conversational
Coders
Customer-Centric
Coders

44. how do we get ready?

45. for starters, keep the good intentions
& match it with good behavior

46. “code should make you happy”

47. “Don’t code alone”

48. clarity counts.

49. more pseudo-code*. more sketching.!
* not the same as sudo code.
which is possibly a lesson i learned the hard way.

50. empty readme

52. this is also a metaphor
For constructive criticism.
For providing context to your code.
For not preferring RTFM to RTFC.
empty readme

53. just write.
then leave it.
read it aloud.
edit.
kill your darlings.
This applies
to writing
code, too.

54. let’s optimize the right things.
Just like dhh’s comments about TDD…
Optimize the important things.
Yes, your code.
Sure, your process.
And, yeah, the documentation.
So we can spend most of our focus
on optimizing products for people.

56. who are you optimizing for?
You have three customers.
Your product team.
Your community (which isn’t all experts).
Your end user.

57. who are we designing for?

58. it’s complicated.

59. so then what?

60. we write code to create value.
Marketers worry a lot about making things people
want, and making people want things.
!
We should focus on making things that are valuable.

61. when we’re all coders, we can all be awesome.
Conversational
Coders
Customer-Centric
Coders
Awesome Product Teams Making
Awesome Products

62. Challenge
Accepted

63. what’s next?
@farrahbostic