A couple early 2012 trends
4th January 12
The new year has barely begun, and I have already started noticing a few tiny trends that might as well be signs of some greater shifts that will develop over the course of the year and beyond:
- Non-programmers learning to code: There was a minor slew of tweets by non-programmers, stating that their New Year resolution is to learn to code, mainly using Codecademy. To be honest I am not surprised, as it seems that in the present job crunch and general downturn the demand for skilled coders is in ever rising demand. Even if you don’t aim to find employment as a programmer, knowing how to code is growing more and more useful for a number of smaller tasks in your daily life. I think that the main obstacle in their resolution will be when they realise that “coding” is not a single thing — there has never been more available languages, platforms and even targeted audiences when it comes to programming than today.
- Getting back to work: This Joy of Tech cartoon is the latest and most visible example of something I’ve been noticing everywhere around me: people are getting back to work. Probably a combination of the ongoing depression and the optimism of the New Year is prompting people to turn away from looking for ways to entertain themselves and look for ways to create some value and have some fun doing it. Of course, this attitude has always been present in startups, but it’s spilling over to the general population.
