Not Everyone Should Code or 10 Signs That Programming Is Not For You

If you are confused about whether you should learn to program, then programming is probably not for you. You will pass years searching for questions about either you should learn or not. But then some people are already into programming but aren’t sure if they can make it their career or not. Then you might consider 10 signs, which suggest that programming might not be for you.

[@therealist2000]

1. You don't like sitting 2. No interest in solving a puzzle 3. No excitement after solving a problem 4. You like repetitive tasks 5. Low frustration tolerance 6. Not a team player and full of ego 7. If you want to be told what to do 8. Zero patience 9. Aversion against googling 10. If you have never said "there's gotta be a better way"

[@maksym6737]

Thanks god the smart humans have created tables that allow to stand while working!

[@trappedcat3615]

@@maksym6737 I code in bed 99% of the time

[@danceswithdirt7197]

I've been programming for a very long time and I think item 5 depends on the day. :P Sometimes it is my low level of tolerance for frustration that motivates me to fix a problem.

[@cont8155]

Nah 6 teams and teamwork is overrated i work much faster solo only held back by so called teammates who just breaks stuff and make unoptimized mess that i have to fix later

[@theLegendOfYer]

I meet 5, 7, and 8. Yet I still managed five years in the industry. Although it was freaking hard af

[@priceskew868]

Finally someone is not convincing all of us that we need to learn programming

[@trappedcat3615]

Check out the Tech Lead

[@spaceman5863]

The rruth is every programmer experiences all those negative effects , is just that it comes and goes

[@squarerootof2]

Lots of lone coders out there who do not really enjoy team-work that much and yet work in open source projects and like sharing. It must be my ego, I suppose.

[@PhaseControlDNB]

Even on open source projects you work with other people and you require peer reviews by other people. If you can't take criticism and better suggestions, you still face the same issues as part of a team in a company

[@trappedcat3615]

@@PhaseControlDNB taking criticism is not the same as team work and teams are not the only voice of criticism. Team work can often slow down and even freeze up development. It's okay to not like it and still be a good team player.

[@squarerootof2]

@@PhaseControlDNB Not quite the same. And it's not about taking criticism or suggestions. It's got more to do with the toxicity of Web development environments, particularly the JavaScript community. Doesn't really happen with more serious coders in other languages. I just wish they kept their asinine political opinions and mental issues to themselves and stuck to coding... Programming used to be about writing good code and problem solving. Now it's become some kind of fad and a rallying point where teenage brats can display their lack of individually and herd mentality.

[@huzaifahismail469]

Finally a video showing the true nature of me. Ive come accept the fact that I cant be a programmer even tho I love to code. But I just dont like the long working hour and every day of trying to adapt and learn new stuff. Mean while the project deadline is causing me having a mental breakdown. So far Ive been teaching c# at high school and Ive been enjoying a lot more than my previous jobs. In fact Ive been getting raise nowadays compared to where I was working as programmers never got one because of my bad performance. And its not a bad thing. I still successful imo. And I still get to code too

[@leftoverture1976]

Project deadline is overkill to me, maybe I should do something else as well. Kudos for finding you way. Good luck!

[@martyn21358]

I'm 64. been programming all my life. I ticked all 10 boxes love it

[@squarerootof2]

Good for you! I don't like ticking boxes, though.

[@andyhall7032]

I'm interested to know if you are employed as a programmer and if so what is your main language thanks.

[@tedchirvasiu]

Have you always been like this or just eventually grew up into a burnt out antisocial grumpy old man? Serious question, because when I first started programming I had 0 boxes ticked. Now I have at least 4.

[@fburton8]

Same here. I'm 61. All boxes ticked from start, apart from 9 because there was no Internet, and to some extent 6 because I have always been a solo programmer and still am (but work closely with non-programmers). The feeling of excitement/elation when something works is my primary driver and is like a drug; hearing people say "it's great software" is really motivating too.

[@squarerootof2]

@@tedchirvasiu You sound pretty grumpy and antisocial yourself. Are you sure you're not just projecting. Even my Grandma ticks more boxes than you!

[@andresramirez4469]

for 2 years i have been learning to code and i have reached my breaking point. I realize deep down i dont like it. i think i might just be burnt out

[@Seekingtruth-mx3ur]

Yeah I honestly don't like it either. I feel burnt out sometimes. Gotta be honest with yourself. Who tf likes sitting infront of a desk for hours and hours?

[@andresramirez4469]

for me i just dont want to keep learning new concepts and languages. I dont want to write lines of code everyday. To be honest i dont find any joy in it @@Seekingtruth-mx3ur

[@eeraa]

as a game developer someone ask me once if he should try to coding and become a programmer/software dev. I told him are you willing to find a problem in a thick book and not mind to reading/checking every line over and over ? I think this answer is still valid today.

[@swschilke]

11) been over engineered - selecting/ searching the right libraries for ages (and can't decide which one you use) before finally starting to slap some MVP or alpha together. 12) copy and paste is your main way of creating code, then you should not be a coder (the quality guys will hate you anyways)

[@fr3ddyfr3sh]

11) you are comfortable with pareto principle (80:20) Or in other words: Replace “most efficient” by “sufficient efficient”. If you want to become an exceptional good developer who finishes projects in time. The “most efficient solution” people usually are not able to finish their projects, because they optimise forever.

[@aninnymoose720]

Seems like a good way to carve a path of destruction. This is proving a terrible path in other trades... At least in my country.. Some things should be optimized to help improve people's lives, rather than create new problems , discontent and anger those whom just haven't learned to understand the truest meaning of perspective...

[@jesstiss222]

@fr3ddyfr3sh 🤯 that’s literally my life struggle summed up in a yt comment. Very valuable and insightful words. I’m not sure how to “fix it,” but I’m grateful you helped me identify work I need to do. Thank you, truly!

[@alvaromoe]

Nice summary! I was skeptical when I saw the title thinking that it was going to be one of those "everyone can be a programmer" kind of video.

[@kalebdodge3488]

Another sign you're not meant to be a programmer: `You despise wizards. You will be surrounded by other practitioners of the digital arts.`

[@freeme6111]

OMG! No wonder I can't code even after i went to a coding bootcamp and got a C.S degree because every single one of them describes me.

[@trappedcat3615]

It describes everyone. Nobody likes stress, and we all have ego and frustration issues at times. The list is a pie the sky standard of a programmer.

[@soccerplayer922]

@@trappedcat3615 Honestly, its a pretty good list. People who are offended by it are probably not good programmers, or are exceptions.

[@trappedcat3615]

@@soccerplayer922 Sure, it's a great list. It's just not reality.

[@soccerplayer922]

​@@trappedcat3615 matches my experience and people I've worked with over the last 10 years. Lol. How could you be a good programmer but not like siting at your desk for hours on end? Nearly every item on this list are nearly prerequisites to programming for a career.

[@fburton8]

@@soccerplayer922 You could use on of those standing desks? 😛Seriously though, I find walking is incredibly important too for thinking about the programming task I'm working on - UI design, program/module organization, data structures, algorithms, where a particular bug might be.

[@PedroOliveira-sl6nw]

You forgot Sign 11: You Turn Coffee Into Code

[@tedchirvasiu]

You mean "you don't turn coffee into code"?

[@fburton8]

OMG this is a crucial point. For me it used to be coffee and cigarettes - until I discovered cigarettes are not necessary (but coffee is).

[@jkf16m96]

about the EGO thing... This depends, if you're a highly competitive person, you won't just be an average programmer, you will be one of the bests out there. Having higher ego and sense of self-awareness of your skills, will make you get to the top extremely quickly if you're very aware of your own limitations as a professional and as a person. I'm not sure if ego is the correct word for this, but you have to be really sure of your current skills, and polish them to their best form, so no matter if your team is extremely incapable of delivering code, you will be able to turn them down to the HR, and deliver a whole project by yourself. Of course, only if you have the worse of the lucks to even have that kind of team, if even then, the company overlooks that, you, being a professional that delivered a whole project by yourself, are more than prepared to quit and go to the next company without any fear, because you're sure, that you're capable enough. This only happens if you have the worst of the teams, if you're a manager, you don't have any excuses, but if you're mid-level senior who doesn't hold that responsibility of handling a team, just do your work, work with others and if the others aren't willing to cooperate, do it yourself, deliver the best you can, and quit when you can to a better professional environment.

[@theultimatereductionist7592]

Not a single one of these thousands upon thousands of videos giving advice on coding EVER EVER EVER addresses those who need coding done but it is NOT part of a job. Absolutely 100% of these advice-giving videos addresses ONLY professional software developers. But never ever amateurs who still need coding done.

[@QuakerRaze]

Thanks for this video. I am a software developer for five years and this video made me put my two weeks notice in. Can you make another video about finding another career? I always follow advice that comes from the internet and KZbin videos.

[@TomNook.]

lawn mower

[@QuakerRaze]

@@TomNook. Thanks, hopefully I can find a remote position and work from home.

[@squarerootof2]

Same. After 30 years I'm about to chuck it all in and start selling cosmetics door to door. I wish I'd never watched this video. What a bummer, lmao!!!

[@aninnymoose720]

Fortunately you can just respawn as Player and proceed along a different path.

[@EdanZy]

Great Video!

[@FedericoPedemonte]

11. You don't like swearing

[@chris-dd6uq]

you know programming isn't for you when it's been over 10 years and you still cannot seem to learn programming.

[@aninnymoose720]

Same. You're learning, just not following the path they set for us. Maybe consider changing your environment

[@chris-dd6uq]

@@aninnymoose720 my environment is irrelevant. I can't figure this out. I cannot do projects if I do not know how to do projects or figure what to or how to write. I can't figure out where to begin. The videos online are useless. Just going over the syntax doesn't give someone the ability to complete projects.

[@aninnymoose720]

@@chris-dd6uq i don't think they want ppl like us "programming", or anyone new for that matter. Maybe those in school already under the wing of someone else.. that's the impression I've got. Like, pandemic expedited the ferry and we missed our ride ☹

[@Leron_T]

I'm the exact opposite of every one of these points. Thanks for this affirmation

[@myentertainment55]

Don't get discouraged. Try to learn it for some time before deciding. Big portion of those points are not true/not applicable in my opinion for beginner devs.

[@Salah-YT]

WOW Programming is for me I like what all of u said 🙂

[@Darkurge666]

I think you can have low patience as long as you're stubborn enough to persist and not give up when things fail. I gave generally poor patience, so I want to find the best solutions and not have to solve the same problem twice. But I'm also stubborn as hell. I won't let that fucking bug defeat me! 😆

[@kishirisu1268]

The worst part is toxic “upper tier” people who failed to became developers and working as “mangers”, they will attack, insult, mentally abuse you.

[@malikrahman8649]

Should be retitled 'Signs You Don't Like Working'

[@swschilke]

regarding 1) Sit-Stand desks, you can code the whole day standing - Duh

[@Age_of_Apocalypse]

Software developer, I may be in the right field! 🤣 Thanks for the video! You nailed it!

[@MelroyvandenBerg]

Refactoring is fixing already working code. Refactoring is not fixing bugs.

[@Chironexe]

This is on the level of a watchmojo video.

[@avidrucker]

Couldn't agree more. The level of silly arguments and statements made here are shamefully flimsy.

[@jsonkody]

@avi wtf? There are very good points for people that don't know nothing about programming .. pls elaborate, or remain silent ;)

[@avidrucker]

@@jsonkody Thank you for holding me accountable to my comment 😁 How would you like me to elaborate - by making a response video, writing a short blog article, or just commenting here? BTW I would disagree with your statement "there are very good points for people that don't know nothing about programming" because many (if I recall correctly) points in this video are highly subjective, relative, vapid, and/or factually incorrect. (I will have to re-watch it to say which is which, and how many of each) Cheers ~

[@Chironexe]

@@jsonkody The only way to know if programming isn't for is to try it yourself. Not some half assed video made for views.

[@jsonkody]

@@avidrucker ​ no they are not, we probably watched two different videos. This is maybe first video about that topic that is made right and is not just waste of time, thats why I was so suprised by that comments (not really .. there is no thing without haters). People just dont realize how much sitting in front of computer it require - even if thats common sense it's really good point #1. And it's not some subjective stuff like you wrote - it's a fact. You may stand, maybe walk if you are really fancy but thats it. (.. and 99% of programmers will just sit/stand) Programming is like solving a riddle more than what people outside of it think - math. Most of it. You must like it on some level to become good. You must be prepared for frustrations, for some problematic stuff happening and you solving it for long periods of time. etc. I could go on but wont. Those are first four points and they are not highly subjective at all. They are basically a facts and I 100% agree with them. Maybe we have different backgrounds I dont know. Do you do programming/development for living?

[@user-vm3il9vi1q]

There are standing desks and threadwalks if you don't like sitting; also, I doubt ADHD is your downfall if you want to code

[@mbb701]

I am quit For me, It is like doing mathematics problems. But I don't mean I can't solve it.

[@dragonbleu1205]

Thanks i think this video is great, BUT you miss one essential point for me because i'm dyslexic so i give it to you : Point 11 : You must love work on TEXT and learn a new language ! Coding is like learning a new language, it's a 100% TEXTUAL work, reading, writing, spelling, learn new word, learn new syntax, etc etc. This point is why i hate so mutch coding because i hate read and write. It's burn my dyslexic brain !

[@fdkd110]

that is why i have to do it

[@JS-ys2uk]

Honestly I'm not patient at all nut I'm a Software Engineer and I love it

[@ThisuraDodangoda]

Not the point of the video but wait, if I'm good at programming, will I be a good parent? I was always anxious about this...

[@myentertainment55]

Jokes aside I think those fields are barely touching. You can be or not. I think you need communicate with people and know them to be a good parent. You can take some interesting principals from coding, but to read human emotions and understand their psychology is important as well as have genuine desire to raise decent human beings. You can take to try to fail to try something different approach and to use peer review, get advice and perspective from more experienced and check best practices for particular issue and as your code your child will be completely unique with their strong side and their problems. So you have to problem-solve almost every day and problems will be different. If we take this perspective it is not that different. (But you still need to read human emotions while interacting with them, you can't be very antisocial in my opinion, or at least your spouse should be better in that regard to compensate for this).

[@depayanmondal]

Ok so I do get frustrated easily but then again most people who are starting out and inexperienced do

[@nametbd233]

The key thing is that we should not give up when frustrated.

[@gokickrocks3830]

I tried coding for a year, but never broke past basic frameworks and beginner stuff on the web side of things, I realized no matter how cool I wanted to be software engineering wasn't for me.

[@Daaell]

Spot on

[@painpanther8133]

I started coding and stuff and then I realized this is not for me thanks

[@shutthefuckupbiatch]

I thought this was meant to be ironic/sarcastic, almost anyone that wants to achieve something worth while will have to deal with most of the things on the list in whatever professional path they will choose. Learning to write code and starting a job at it is one of the easier ways to develop a career(atm) assuming your are somewhat talented in learning it.

[@o0Zuel0o]

Sorry, the video should have been zero based indexed.

[@engineer9528]

2:28 "programmers are creative and dont like repetitive tasks" 3:28 they HAVE to check code over and over ALL the time Who you are trying to fool..

[@GajanaNigade]

Well... This actually hinted that I could be a programmer.

[@entropy59122]

I didn't get the output in my exam and I've been a computer student all my life, am I stupid? Even the biology students got it...

[@theultimatereductionist7592]

I love sitting! So I nailed that. Everything else? Nah..

[@camo216]

I have 0 of these guess it’s a good thing j chose programming

[@kenyafadel6142]

everybody is talking about posschain could you take a look at it and create a video about it

[@trappedcat3615]

Here are my 5: You should code if... 1. You are okay coding wherever you want 2. Like making puzzles into no puzzle 3. Like making problems into no problem 4. Like eliminating repeat tasks 5. 100% human and experience frustrations

[@AgentK-im8ke]

i have most of the signs LFMAO

[@theultimatereductionist7592]

1:26 Wait.. WTF? The world of programming is "very flexible" and "there are innumerable solutions to every coding problem"? You mean coding: the MOST INFLEXIBLE RIGID ABSOLUTE ACTIVITY WITH ZERO GUARANTEES OF SUCCESS are this thing you call "very flexible"?

[@zeocamo]

some of the points with Debugging is out of date, with BDD in a FP way, and with a PDE with the right plugins and most(99%) of bugs is found before your build the software, and with a language like rust, i normally only need to debug 1 time per month, and i keep things(bugs) that i can remove 100% by write a plugin more for my PDE. and the unit tests in the BDD also works as docs of the software. keep pushing your understanding and you be better. ps. for new devs, BDD is Behavior-Driven Development, you define your pure logic in functions that "convert/change" the data in the way need for the behavior. FP is Functional programming, a way to work with the state(data) of your program, with pure functions. PDE is for Personalize Development Environment, at a time a jr dev will see they need more then a IDE, because it is slow and do not fit your needs as a dev, this is when you start look for a fix and you find a PDE, your start making your own dev. env. and this is the time you become a real senior dev, by always pushing to be better. (good PDEs is emacs, vim, and the best i found is Neovim).

[@eulbart]

They forgot 11. You don't like acronyms

[@zeocamo]

@@eulbart yea, we do love all the acronyms, there is so many that i sometime need to look some of them up, can't remember them all, i use all the space in my head for the Vim keybindings :P

[@eulbart]

@@zeocamo muhahaha!

[@fburton8]

Still, there will always be bugs in software of any significant size. At least, it's better to believe this is the case.

[@zeocamo]

@@fburton8 and that is why i always try to understand why i make the bug in the first place so i can make a rule and then a plugin or some config lines to make sure it doesn't happen again, or a underline text so i know i need to look for it, it really make your day better

[@deepakcm5714]

you forgot one of the most important point "You should love Mathematics"

[@xyz-vv5tg]

Why? How many developers you know love maths?

[@alirahimi4477]

My opinion as a software developer: 1. Maybe true. Linus Torvalds seems to code walking on a treadmill 2. True 3. True 4. Not True. Many things in software are actually repetitive (the boring parts) and if you want to always find new problems instead of solving old boring ones you will probably over-engineer or write unreadable code 5. True 6. Not necessarily true. You can work without a team (e.g. freelancers) and even in teams, most programmers are introverted. You certainly don't need to be a people's person to be a programmer. The full of ego part is just your personal opinion about people in general. 7. Sometimes (not often, I hope) you actually are told what to do with great detail and 0 creativity. 8. I actually love programming because I'm impatient and enjoy building things and seeing them work in real time instead of spending years without results (anything academic, looking at you). You don't have to wait for the whole program to work, a small function working is also nice and good for the impatient. 9. True 10. Meh

[@alirahimi4477]

All in All, I would say most points you have made are not specific to programming or are untrue.

[@squarerootof2]

Good points. Most of my problem solving is done while walking or in bed before I go to sleep, not staring at a screen. If you spend too much time sitting chances are you're doing something mechanical and you'll be soon substituted by a copy-pasta robot.

[@fdagpigj]

@@squarerootof2 Yeah, that's part of why I take a break *at least* once every 60-90 minutes to go to the bathroom or the break room to get a refill on water or coffee. Helps me remove myself from the code and think more abstractly + relieve my sitting muscles etc.

[@TayambaMwanza]

Great graphics but don't say programming is like playing video games, that's really overselling it 🤣

[@samuelcosey7676]

what do you say guys? this looks like a great opportunity

[@joelmarshall4989]

I’ll invest in good I have so many losses in beat season I am planning to cover my losses with posschain

[@spinningaround]

11. You adore python and hate assembly.

[@avidrucker]

I find the robo voice off-putting. Anyone else feel similarly?

[@fruityfriend]

whoever made this crap doesn't know the reality of being a programmer.

[@Nominal_GDP]

> full of ego Thats all software developrrs

[@Luther_Luffeigh]

After 15 years of coding, the only thing I would change is the sitting 🪑 part. I stand 4 out of 6-7 hrs a day while working and I take a lot of breaks for sake of my mind and eyes. It’s working so far.