See the video for this post: Beyond Coding: Business Thinking and Alternative Vision
Summary: Learning programming and how to code is not just about getting a job. If there are companies and products that you don’t like, or you don’t agree with their practices, my hope is that you can use coding and other skills to provide alternatives. To do this, learn business-thinking skills.
I create a lot of videos and resources about how to learn computer science, software development, and coding. For a lot of people, this might be to further your career or to do better in school or a course. Some of you might also use coding for personal projects, like tools for yourself or games that you may hope to share and sell.
However, I also have a bigger goal, which I’ve shared with many of my students. You might find that there are products that you don’t like, for whatever reason, or companies whose practices you don’t agree with or you don’t want to support. But sometimes it’s hard to find an alternative that fully meets your needs to replace the product or company. I’m sure we can all think of companies or products that we really would love to ditch, but it’s hard to get away from. I will not name specific companies or names here, but I’m sure you have some that you personally can think of.
In some cases, there are alternatives out there, but maybe you just don’t know about them or aren’t comfortable with the learning curve. For example, to save money, you could replace some of the word processing software programs that require a paid license with open-source alternatives like OpenOffice, but a lot of people don’t necessarily know about that option or feel comfortable installing a new program on their computer (for people who might have more limited computer literacy skills).
But maybe there aren’t any good alternatives, or some of the alternatives could stand some improvement. In that case, my hope is that my students and viewers, and anyone else out there, will be able to use their skills to fill in those gaps.
So it’s really important to have alternatives, and that’s why it’s critical to learn about coding, as well as other skills, such as how computers, internet, and other technology works. Look at areas like creating computer hardware, understanding electrical engineering, how to actually put a website online (or maybe even how to create your own website hosting, so you don’t have to worry about someone else controlling your hosting).
Another key area to learn about is business, and business thinking skills. Creating a product that meets a need and then getting it to people requires strategic thinking. To help you start thinking in this way, here are some resources you might want to check out:
https://www.alexandercowan.com/business-model-canvas-templates/
https://steveblank.com/books-for-startups/
https://steveblank.com/startup-owners-manual-1in/
I do understand that it’s not easy to start a new business, or offer a new product, in order to provide alternatives to some of these large organizations and products. It takes time, money, skills, resources. But the important thing is to get started if that’s what you feel called to do. You have to take a long-term, strategic point of view. Many of the biggest corporations we use products from everyday started when I was young, and now they’re the major controllers of their markets. A lot of time, there is luck involved too, being at the right place, at the right time, with the right people. But you can increase your chances of luck with preparation and learning, which you can start on now.
Also, I am not condoning or condemning the use of any particular product or business. I leave that up to your personal discretion about your own convictions about particular items and entities, and how a change would affect how you’re able to navigate what you need to do in your everyday life. I could argue that for some people, even using a platform like Youtube would be feeding into something you don’t agree with. You should choose your own line and limit, according to how you feel called.
Also please do not think I’m trying to give you a “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps” talk. It does take work, and there are lucky breaks involved with a lot of these corporations and products that you see. But APPLIED knowledge is power, and I just don’t want you to be too intimidated by the odds that may be against you, to the point where you don’t feel like you can even attempt to create something that you’re called to offer or do. This won’t solve all of the problems out there, and I won’t say something like “if you work hard, you can all be rich and powerful too.” And I know that we all have responsibilities and things that happen in life, so you shouldn’t feel ashamed or like this is a “scolding” if you don’t have the time, money, or resources to work on something you might feel called to do. This is more saying, we might not have all the pieces of the puzzle to take on some of these entities that we don’t want to support, but let’s work with what we have, and we can likely build things that still provide value for people who want something different, and have more success than we give ourselves credit for being able to achieve.
A good thing about software and other industries now, is that it’s relatively easier to create something and get it to people. For example, look how easy it is now for people to create and distribute their own games. But of course the flip-side is that it’s harder to standout, so that’s where luck and business thinking can come into play.
There’s no blame or shaming here if you try to put out an alternative product or business and it doesn’t work. I’m that position myself too, of setting out to accomplish something but not landing the impact that I wanted, so I’m definitely not the one to talk down on anyone. My goal is just to do what I can to help people be aware of and get access to the tools that are out there, and to help you think big, and to feel more confident about being able to accomplish even a bit of what you set out to do. I’ve been fortunate enough to have access to certain opportunities and information that have helped me, and I feel like part of my calling is to help connect people who don’t have that same access with a chance to get some of those opportunities as well.
There’s lots of talk about AI makes learning coding and other skills pointless, and school and learning is no use, or certain things are too big to take on, and I honestly feel like that’s a way to disempower people and trick them into willingly giving up the tools they can use to improve a situation. It’s like if I have a pest infestation, and a pest control company locks up all the Raid and traps and tools behind a ridiculous paywall, and then tells me “oh, it’s no use, the tools you need are too expensive and don’t work anyway, you’d be better off just letting us handle it for you.”
If AI is going to take over, and we’re surrounded by computing technology in almost every aspect of our lives, won’t we serve ourselves better if we better understood how those things work? Even going beyond just learning about technology, if you have an idea of a non-tech solution to something that seems to be dominated by tech in a negative way, why not give yourself the best chance of creating that solution and sharing it with others? If we’re not happy with how some feel businesses and corporations do business, shouldn’t we know the rules of their game that they’re playing so we can do something different?
And this goes for not just for business, this can be for non-profit efforts, open-source, community projects, whatever the case may be.
So, I know this took a detour, but to sum up, I want to encourage you to think big and strategically. I recommend looking into business principles. This is not just about coding for the sake of a job, but for how you can use it be impactful and provide alternatives. And really, it’s not just coding and computer science, but any useful skill.
