The Future is Code: Tips for Getting Started in Programming

Contrary to what some resistant to technological change may think, computer programming is not only useful for video games or computers. The platforms of diffusion such as Netflix or Spotify, messaging services such as Whatsapp, social networks, email or any other digitized tools work from automated systems configured by a group of programmers.

Institutional sites and service applications like Uber, Cornershop, Webpay or any bank also exist thanks to this work. Programming “is the way we have to communicate with machines”, sums up Andrés Gallardo, executive director of Latam Challenge a digital talent academy that offers crash courses in technology and, specifically, programming.

It is a language through which “a series of instructions can be generated that allows us to go from watching a movie to making an online purchase, playing a video game or making a video call with our friends. Whatever we want to do via a computer requires someone to have given the instructions via programming,” he adds.

Sebastián de Andraca, who is part of a bank’s development team, defines programming as an art that solves endless problems that can arise throughout life. Sebastián’s job is to create digital tools that allow his clients to perform all kinds of operations. Do you need to make a transfer? Paying a bill or your credit card? You can do this without having to go to a branch thanks to the digital services of your banking institution.

De Andraca is growing day by day as a programmer, without courses, only with the experience that his work for the bank brings him. But also that which he accumulates from another activity to which he devotes himself in parallel: digital art. Their rooms sold as NTF, were born from the use of the technique of machine learninga discipline of artificial intelligence that consists of “automate learning processes” through the analysis of massive data.

This is also what happened to Felipe Alfonso, who only had his first approaches to programming at the age of 21, but as is often the case in the world of programming, the practice perfected: although he did not take formal courses, he had the help and support of “very talented people” in his workplace, who guided him in his learning. Why did you want to venture into these conflicts? “Because I wanted to create my own video games and not depend on others,” he replies.

Let’s say you are on your way to that goal. For 12 years, Felipe has been dedicated to programming video games for the Argentine company Agile Giant Entertainment . Your task is to optimize them so that they “work” as well as possible on all platforms.

“In fact, the role I play now is to technically lead the team that is responsible for ensuring that the games developed by the company can be played on (the new consoles) Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X/S” , he says. This year will see a few launches, including that of a franchise produced by Warner Bros. Games, in which he has worked for the past three years.

Programming, says de Andraca, is a “living and changing technology”, which is “optimized and pushing its limits” every day. For this reason, “you can’t stay in a comfort zone for long; you quickly become obsolete. An example of this has to do with the challenges that cryptocurrencies pose for banks. “They have to adapt to this digital currency,” he says.

De Andraca says there is an interesting paradox: “We live in the digital world, but we don’t understand how it works.” Despite this gap caused by ignorance, there are industries that over the past 30 years have managed to rise to the top of the most valuable. This is the case with video games: according to the German portal Statistical , the value of this market in 2021 was $198 billion. And it is predicted that by 2027 this will reach over 339 billion.

On the other hand, Andrés Gallardo assures that there is a shortage of professionals dedicated to programming, despite the fact that “there has been an increase in careers associated with IT”. According to the Ministry of Education, the increase was 28% between 2019 and 2021. “It’s positive, but it’s far from the demands of professionals who exist in the labor market”, assures the executive director of the Desafio Latam.

Along with the increase in the number of IT-related careers, there has also been an increase in the number of professionals from all fields looking to supplement their education with knowledge of digital language. This through programs known as training camps, “who are looking to learn programming skills in less time, between three and six months,” says Gallardo. Institutions such as Desafío Latam or public programs such as Digital talent for Chile they provide the opportunity to acquire digital skills at a lower cost.

Gallardo warns that it is not only a question of knowing how to program to dedicate oneself to it professionally. But also to “understand the functioning of the systems, their limits and propose solutions”. Learning programming, he says, is “important in a digital society, just as we learn history or science to understand the world around us.”

The information technology (IT) coordinator of the Computer Science Department of the University of Santiago (USACH), Cristóbal Acosta, adds that “more and more products are integrating computer systems, which at the same time are becoming smaller : television, audio system, air conditioning, clocks, coffee machines, etc. This is called IoT, or internet of things (Internet of Things). Anyone who aspires to a new profession cannot fail to know the tools of office automation (those which at the IT level make it possible to optimize work in an office)”.

Specialists agree that the ideal is to learn from an early age. “Early exposure to programming was the beginning of characters such as Bill Gates or Steve Jobs”, illustrates Acosta. “I would say it’s like learning a new language: the sooner you know how to speak it, the easier it is for you to communicate later,” he adds.

Investigation stackoverflow 2021 , in which more than 49,000 programmers from various countries participated, found that 53% of respondents said they wrote their first line of code between the ages of 11 and 17. Tim Sweeney, creator of Fortnite, one of the most successful and profitable video games in history, programmed its first game when it was just 11 years old. Today, at 52, he has amassed a fortune of $7.6 billion, according to Forbes.

It’s not that every girl or boy who becomes a programmer is going to become a multimillionaire, but as Felipe Alfonso and Andrés Gallardo say, they could evolve into an increasingly “sought-after” profession that is currently experiencing “an almost bad “. “.

Sebastián de Andraca says that in some European countries programming is taught from basic education. “There is also the case of China, where children are in school from the age of 6, so one would expect Chile to follow the same path.” For his part, Alfonso has doubts about the advantages that could have been established by fixing programming as a compulsory subject at school stage. “I don’t feel like it’s for everyone, but I think anyone can learn to code,” he says.

Currently, and especially among parents, the idea prevails that spending time in video games is wasting it, and that this has more serious consequences than positive. It doesn’t always have to be that way. Minecraft, the popular construction and “open world” type video game (without limit of movement and with the possibility of modifying the elements at will), is considered a good gateway to the world of programming. Especially your edit. Education .

The game “inserts you into creative environments that allow you to create systems with binary logic (the basis of computation) and, in turn, allows it to be freely extended through Java (one of the most widely used languages by programmers all over the world), arousing great interest in children so that they begin to learn programming and can modify the game to their liking”, describes Sebastián de Andraca.

Other titles that allow you to enter the world of programming can be found on the web platforms and applications of smart phonesWhat CodeCombat Yes kodable . “Both have a large number of exercises in which real programming languages ​​are learned and from the point of view of building interactive games,” says De Andraca. Something similar happens with Tynker Yes Monkey Code recommended by Andrés Gallardo.

Felipe Alfonso recommends Roblox popular program for pc, smart phones and Xbox, where there are countless games created by the same users, which develops them through the Lua language.

The prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) provides the children’s programming community free of charge Scratch , in which you can learn by playing. At the level of blogs and vlogs (blogs in video format), you can consult the content that Desafío Latam frequently uploads to its publishing website or on your channel Youtube .

Finally, a little advice for those interested in learning about these topics. “It is important to be patient. Set small goals that you think are achievable with the knowledge you have and stick to them. Finally, never stop learning. Felipe Alfonso says so.

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