Perhaps the most interesting thing I learned so far in Hacker School is that you should design learning like you design code. This was inspired by a presentation that Mel Chua gave to our batch. It’s a very powerful idea that I feel is worth exploring, analyzing and sharing.
In this post, I will attempt to cover how and why programmers learn, how they design code and why everyone could benefit from adopting the “design to learn” model.
Why developers learn:
In The Dark Knight, the Joker said, “If you’re good at something, never do it for free”. Programming can be a very profitable career choice. So it’s safe to say that some developers do it for the $money. They understand the supply-demand curve of market economics. To most people, computers are highly useful magic black-boxes of awesomeness, so those who wield the power to create and control them are wizards. Mastering a language, technology stack or project implementation yields great rewards when those skills solve real-world problems. Just imagine how much XYZ Company will pay for a level-60 Java wizard!
- Learn to code
- …
- Profit
But what about software engineers who aren’t in it for the money? Their motivation is probably a bit more interesting and complex. For some, it is the autonomy and creativity of creating novel code. Or maybe it’s the competence felt when basking in the praise of technophobes whose desktops always need rescuing (Mom, I promise I’ll fix your Internet as soon as I get some free time).
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