Programming Is Going To Be For Everybody

And it's going to be the most amazing thing.

A couple weeks ago, programming legend Steve Yegge was on the Pragmatic Engineer podcast. It was a provocative conversation overall, but what really stood out (to me) was a thing he said at the end:

I’m serious, man. Programming is going to be for everybody. And it’s going to be the most amazing thing. Because you know how much fun we’ve been having all those years. And we’ve been telling people it’s really fun. But now they’re going to get to experience it.

While the implications of AI on the software industry are massive, I think the real story is what this change makes possible for the other 99.9% of humanity. Yesterday, if you weren’t a coder, you couldn’t be a programmer. Today, you can.

Last week’s New York Times story also said it well:

This is the cultural side-effect of coding becoming conversational: the realms of programmers and everyday people, separated for decades by an ocean of arcane know-how, are drifting closer together.

That’s the purpose of this Substack (and book!). I’m not satisfied with “drifting closer”; I want to get out and push!

If you’re someone who’s not a software engineer by trade, and you’re curious about using this new-found power to make your own apps and software, drop me a line. I’d love to talk to you, to share my in-progress work, and maybe even to feature your story as part of it.