Literacy used to be a big deal. That is, not illiteracy; I’m talking about the number of people who could not read or write in the general populous. Nowadays, this problem has largely been eradicated from 1st and 2nd world countries, though admittedly it’s still an issue in the 3rd world.
It’s not just about reading a newspaper or writing a report, but more on the quality of said literature. So much of “knowledge work” present in current jobs require some degree of writing, that schools have continued to emphasize the skill, testing it with the likes of essay questions in entrance exams (i.e., SAT’s and GRE’s). And they barely started teaching us how to type properly 15 years ago, though I’d imagine general computer skills and speed typing ought to be a part of the core curriculum by now.
Can we get some love for programming too?
On some levels, software literacy is currently where literacy was post-invention of the printing press. Pretty much everyone is carrying around a laptop or smartphone, making computing even more ubiquitous than the desktop revolution and more portable to boot. The internet has made work, entertainment, and of course instant global communication possible; an email address or Twitter handle are as much of one’s identity as a telephone number or physical address.
Like most powerful systems, the software powering this evolution is increasingly complex, so much so that it’s normal to encounter glitches and errors. At the same time, even when everything works the computer can’t quite do what you want; that spreadsheet really can’t be imported into Taxcut because the format wasn’t supported, and that website won’t work in Firefox cause it was made for Internet Explorer.
And there aren’t enough developers in the world to fill these voids. Us devs already have a bunch of homebrew solutions for software that doesn’t quite work, and I’m sure a lot of technically savvy users have their own set of tools and scripts to muzzle an uncooperative machine. As subsequent generations get comfortable with computers and the internet, this mishmash professional, amateur, and self-written software (software here defined very loosely) will become the standard in how they use it.
Eventually, beyond learning how a mouse works and what a directory is, computer users would have to learn how to compile an application, juggle variables, and decrement pointers (1). Students will be forced to write scripts and simple applications in Programming 101, and those with an programming affinity will eventually grow up to be, uh, professional developers.
Then, when everybody calls themselves a “dev”, I’ll go back to the brazen frontier of professional writing. Y’know, fantasy novels and stuff.
- who am I kidding, nobody will understand pointers in 5 years… (↩)