30 Bad Programmers Are No Match for a Good Tool

From time to time we hear people say that we need more programmers. Kids should learn programming in school. Programming should be treated like writing essays.

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I don't agree with this view

In every field, there are some people who reach the top of the pyramid and become authorities in this industry, while more people can only be called excellent. Of course, even more people are at the average level, mediocre, and some are struggling like drowning people.

Let's face it, not everyone is suited to every job. Just as most programmers can't be salespeople, actors, doctors, or lawyers, most lawyers, actors, and salespeople can't be programmers. Geniuses who are all good at one thing or another are always great.

If you force more people into a profession, the only people who will move are the mediocre or even lower-level people, but this will only lower the average skill level of the profession.

Now, we also have a global problem that products are increasingly dependent on software, so we need to meet the increasing demand for software development.

Therefore, having more programmers will not help. And the more programmers (below average), the lower the quality of the software. Many people have experienced this. So, really don't make things worse.

What we need is better tools

Almost everyone would agree that tools have gotten better over time. Is that really the case?

I've been programming since I was 14, which is over 30 years ago. My first computer had a 4MHz CPU and 16KB of RAM. I had never written code before, and no one taught me how. I only had the documentation that came with the computer and the tools that came with the documentation. This meant that I only had a built-in BASIC interpreter. However, I still managed to write my first (very simple) game in a few hours.

Imagine if this happened today. Give a 14 year old who has never used a computer a computer in its box and see how long it would take him to write his first program. My guess is it would take him a few weeks or not at all.

Because while we've made a lot of progress over the past few decades, making computers easier to use, they've also become more complicated. You don't just unbox it, plug it in, and turn it on. You have to create a user account, fill out a registration form, download all the latest security updates, find and download development tools, and then read and understand some super complicated documentation to choose the right programming language for you.

Just look at the size of today's APIs and libraries. Such a large scale may have prevented many people from exploring further. Many things are forgotten after they are learned.

We need some tools that are easy to learn and suitable for beginners.

We need tools that allow us to easily switch from Windows programming to Mac programming, Linux programming, and Web programming.

We need tools that can assist with our daily work.

We need tools that allow us to focus on the actual task.

This is the way to solve the problem. It doesn’t matter if you have a lot of programmers, it matters if you have good tools.