What learning to code gives you
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Coding is just about issuing a series of commands to a computer to achieve a task. Because most people start off from the position that computers are crazy/clever things, and they feel it's unlikely they'll ever understand them, coding can seem like a massive hill to climb.

However, the truth is that computers are very, very, dumb – they have about the same intelligence as an earthworm, and not a bright one at that. The only reason coding might be thought of as hard is because you have to learn to talk down to a computer in language it understands, and that needs you to be more clear and exact than you'd be talking to another person.

Because of this, learning coding doesn't just teach you how to program computers. By learning how to simplify and structure what you want doing, coding also teaches key skills like:

  1. how to approach tasks rationally;
  2. how to plan the steps needed for a task;
  3. how to do tasks with a limited toolset;
  4. how to break a task down into parts;
  5. how to use logic to structure a plan;
  6. how to structure language clearly;
  7. the difference between a plan and an elegant plan;
  8. patience and problem analysis;
  9. the way technology works.

It can also be fun (once it clicks), and, for something so logic-based, a quite creative and rewarding enterprise.

The thing with coding is it's best to jump straight into it with both feet, so let's write our first program.