Why learn Java if you are not a programmer and do not plan to become one?

If you thought that only future developers learn programming, we hasten to dispel this myth. Mathematicians, physicists, and statisticians need the basics of programming in their work. Even if we omit examples with professions, it can be useful in everyday life: writing a chatbot for housemates or explaining the solution to a problem to a child. In this text, we name 5 reasons to learn Java, even if you do not want to pursue a career as a developer.

Reason #1. Coding will make you more self-sufficient

Most tech teams have too many projects and too little time. That is, they can solve your technical problem when they have a free minute. Or the company does not have a programmer on staff and needs to be hired from outside. But if you know how to program, you don’t need to wait for help: perhaps you can figure out the problem yourself - fix a bug on an online store’s website or add the necessary feature to your website. Even Excel is a powerful weapon when working with data in the hands of an advanced specialist: it has commands that can be configured to calculate, filter and find the necessary information in tables. Imagine what you can do with a deeper understanding of programming basics! Various tools that marketers, product managers, and sales managers use in their work require so-called fine tuning. A specialist can independently “program” specific settings and requirements if he knows at least a little programming.

Reason #2. You will be able to communicate with developers on equal terms

If you are a business owner, project manager, designer (the list goes on) who works with development teams, learning the basics of programming can be very useful. When you understand how your product is created, you can communicate more effectively with programmers: regarding development stages, deadlines, possibly adding features, and much more.

Reason #3. Helps in automating tasks

Automation enables error-free work, reduces costs, increases productivity—everything that any business requires. Programming can help with automating tasks. Knowing the basics of coding will help you more easily understand how to organize work with tasks, communication within the team, and interaction with customers. To automate work with tasks, you do not need deep programming knowledge. By mastering application programming interfaces (APIs), you will free up time from routine for more interesting tasks. Automation can make the work of a secretary, an office manager, a manager at any level, or a bank employee easier. You can set up sending emails, auto-checking reports, and collecting information.

Reason #4. Programming will teach you to think

Knowing a new language not only enriches your vocabulary and helps you communicate with other people, but also fills our thinking with new meanings. Similar things happen with programming languages. By learning a programming language, a person learns to think in a new way. According to research by Dr. Janet Sigmund, one of the world's leading experts in the field of creating research computer programs, the development activates five areas of the brain associated with natural language processing, working memory and attention. The programmer has to read individual characters (this is radically different from how we read ordinary text), and not words and sentences all at once. For example, if you make a mistake in the command System.out.println ("I'm a good pie"); , the Java Virtual Machine will not understand the command and will not display the text on the screen. Therefore, programming skill develops a different way of thinking: although the developer must keep the meaning of the entire task in mind, he needs to be especially attentive to the details of the program. Even a week of intensive programming, several hours a day, helps you notice the changes that occur in your thinking. In how you approach a choice, to solve any life problem, how you can turn an abstract problem into a step-by-step action plan with subtasks. These skills are useful not only in programming, but also in everyday life. When you feel overwhelmed by a task at hand, use your problem-solving skills to break it down into small, manageable steps. The fundamentals of a systematic approach to problem solving are described in the concept of computational thinking .

Reason #5. You can create a project that will simplify your life

For example, write a bot. A bot is a program that is created to perform similar and repeatable tasks according to a specific algorithm. It saves time by taking over routine functions, and works through interfaces at a speed that is much higher than human speed. Bots have become popular in business and perform routine operations for it. Knowing Java, on the Internet you can find a whole range of ready-made solutions in the form of program code, so writing a bot will not be so difficult. You can also create a simple mobile application, a finance tracker, a program that draws charts, a spam classifier, and much more. We interviewed guys who teach or would like to study development, but do not intend to work as programmers. Here are their answers: What do you think about learning development without subsequent employment? We are waiting for your answers in the comments ;)