4 Life Lessons from Coding

I’ve been coding for about 5 years now...ever since my first coding course in college (Programming Foundations I), I’ve been passionate about solving problems and tackling real-world issues through code.

Before I dive into the lessons I’ve learned from coding, I’d like to provide a broad overview as to what coding is and why it can be helpful. Coding is the process of developing a web application or other computer program from scratch. It involves problem solving, critical thinking, and analyzation skills, to name a few. A few fields that coding can be useful in are information security and cybersecurity, medicine and healthcare, information technology, science, social sciences, big data, artificial intelligence, database management, managing resources, retail, news, advertising, and marketing. Computer science, the broad umbrella under which coding falls, is a broad field which could be applied in a variety of fields, in order to enhance that particular field, or dive deeper into it. Being able to code gives one the ability to apply that knowledge to all aspects of one’s life. That’s why the lessons learned from coding are so important.

Life Lessons from Coding:

1. Try, try, and try again. One of my teachers once told me- “Failure is essential. Only by failing does one learn from their mistakes.” This resonated with me. In coding, if one fails the first time, it could take hours, days, or weeks to fix the issue and be successful. However, this is where the challenge- and reward- lies! Success is a journey, not a destination.
2. Critical thinking skills. In order to be able to code, one must possess critical thinking skills, so that one can analyze the code and really think through the effects of the code. Life often presents us with challenges which require us to critically think through a possible solution.
3. Ability to apply math to code. A large part of computer science incorporates mathematics. Similarly, simple math skills are oftentimes required in life. Maybe it’s counting the number of cars in a line at a stoplight in order to determine which lane would be fastest to take, or estimating a monthly budget...whatever mathematical challenge one faces, one must be able to use concepts learned to solve these challenges.
4. Problem-solving skills. The ability to problem solve is essential to being able to code. One must be able to narrow down the problem, then figure out possible solutions and implement the best solution. In life, one often runs into issues...being able to quickly and efficiently solve these issues helps.