Something you should know about programming even if you are not a programmer

Out daily life are deeply affected by software and web. More and more people are realizing the importance of software, For example, you want to travel to Brazil for the world cup, right? You should first book the ticket online, when you book the ticket, you should pay for the ticket with your credit card, after successfully booking your ticket, you will get a e-ticket in your mailbox. When you arrive at the airport, your identity information will checked against the immigration database system, after successfully go through the check in and you are ready to be on board, you may send messages to your families and friends and say Goodbye to them. Finally, you are on board, the airplane takes off. You are on the way to Brazil and ready to enjoy the one month exciting moment. Guess what, the whole process relates to software running on computers. Many people are advocating that everyone of should learn how to program. This is appealing but it's not practical. However, there are something about programming you should know even if you don't know how to program.

Below are three most important things people should know about programming as described by Tokhon Jelvis.

Programming has an incredible culture of sharing that works

Many people don't realize how much free code there is in the world, and how much everything relies on it. If they did, they probably wouldn't believe it: how can a whole industry operate if so many people work for free? Of course, the real question they should be asking is: how can an industry operate if people don't share?

People also don't realize the full extent of what "free" implies: total freedom for the user. You want to make modifications? You can! You want to give copies away? Sure! You want to sell copies? Go ahead! The only restrictions are usually that (a) you have to name it something different (avoiding confusion) and (b) sometimes you have to pass those same rights along to everyone else (copyleft).

If you suggest this sort of idea to somebody like an artist or photographer, they get morally outraged all too often. Somebody else profiting off my work!? Unthinkable! But why? After all, it doesn't cost you anything directly. And, if everyone did it, you'd get the benefit of a gigantic creative commons to build up. (Which is where Creative Commons gets its name.)

If more people realized that broad sharing is actually beneficial to everyone and adopted more liberal copyright licensing, the world would be much better off.

Programming has almost no concrete barriers to entry

All you need to be a programmer—an employable programmer—is a cheap netbook and an internet connection. Compared to most high-paying industries, people do not put very much stock in degrees and certifications.

Becoming a doctor or lawyer is incredibly complicated and involves going through whole sets of regulatory gatekeepers. Programming has none of that.

If you want a change in what you're doing, consider learning to program. If you like it and put in a bit of time to get the basics, you can get a decent programming job even if you don't have a relevant degree.

Programming is just logic

There's nothing mystical about it. You're just writing out logic in a way that a computer can understand. This is what determines how programming feels. There are no ambiguities. The computer always does exactly what you tell it to; when it does the wrong thing, it means somebody told it to the wrong thing. The computer won't reason for you. It won't try to guess what you meant. It will just do exactly what you said to do.

This also means that the underlying behavior for most programs is surprisingly simple. Expressing it in unambiguous logic means you have to simplify it. So when you think your android game is conspiring against you? It's probably just random in the background. Randomness is much simpler than intelligent, malignant behavior! (This is harder to say with machine learning getting more popular because machine learning algorithms, while still simple, can express surprising emergent behavior.)

The best thing about computers is that they do exactly what you tell them to. The worst thing about computers is that they do exactly what you tell them to. And that describes programming in just two sentences :).