Learn to code

The Icarus Deception is a great book. I resonate with many things from it. But there’s one chapter I’m stumbling at and it’s so true for me:

Learn to make

Everyone should learn to code. Not because we have a tremendous shortage of people who can produce things in [insert the name of your favorite hot programming language here] but because once you know how to make something, it changes how you see things.

Once you know how to set lead type, typography looks different.

Once you know how to assemble an electronic device, every computer seems a bit less mysterious.

Once you know how to give a speech, you see things in the speeches others give.

Learning how to make things turns you from a spectator into a participant, from someone at the mercy of the who is helping to run the system to someone who is helping to run the system.

Learning how to make gives you the guts to make more, to fail more often, to get better at making.”

― Seth Godin, The Icarus Deception

Many people have discussed should designers learn to code. Why not? Half of your team are developers. How to communicate your designs without basic technical knowledge?

But more importantly, learning how to code gives you the guts to make more.

And it applies to me. After knowing how to build a website with GatbyJS, many new ideas come to me. I always think about realistic ideas that I can make it real.

You can say that realistic ideas are limited, and not fun. But maybe you are overthinking. The hardest part is to start. When you start and make the first small idea, you have the momentum to make another one, then a bigger one.

Learn to make.