Yes, you should still learn to code* - by Eric Matthes

With the rapid evolution and hyping of the latest generation of “AI” tools, we’re seeing a resurgence of a question that comes up any time there’s a major development in the programming world:

I’ve seen variations of this question over the last few weeks in all kinds of communities: tweets, toots, blog posts, LinkedIn posts, and more. Wherever people discuss life choices, this question is coming up. Here’s just one small example, in response to OpenAI’s announcement of GPT-4:

This is a natural reaction to what we’ve seen lately. If someone shows you a machine that can turn a napkin sketch into a functional website, it’s reasonable to wonder “Why would anyone ever pay me to build a website again?!” This is especially true if you’re new to the field. It’s even harder to process all of this if you’re not even in the field yet.

The short answer is almost certainly “Yes”, with one major caveat. Many people think you can learn to write a little code, and immediately get a high paying remote job working from the comfort of your home. That was always, with rare exceptions, an appealing myth. It’s an idea we’re being sold by many content creators, but it’s also an idea that’s been fostered by many well-intentioned people. Programming is not as difficult as many people make it out to be, but the skills and experience needed to solve real-world problems isn’t as simple as some have argued either.

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