Coding Influencers

Day 111 / 366

For a while now I have been wanting to make videos on Youtube about coding and software development. I have always loved teaching, and I really believe that being a self-taught developer myself, I have a better perspective than most others about how to help others learn to code as well.

4 years ago I did make a video, about building a web application using Django. It did decently well, considering that it was my first video. So far it has gotten 13k views, and I have gotten 370 subscribers from it. But I never took it further.

One of the reasons is that I am just lazy, but a bigger reason is the bad practices that are prevalent among Indian influencers who teach coding online.

The people who succeed online are the ones who go more for clickbaity titles, drama, and false promises. They generally follow the same pattern. Firstly they will start by telling how good of a coder they are and how they got a job at a big company like Microsoft or Google. Then they will make a video saying that they decided to leave that big company. And finally, they would announce that they are starting a paid online course that will help you get a job at a big company as well.

There are some who do this through reels on Instagram as well. In a 10–20 second reel they would fit in a joke as well as a surface-level explanation of some random concept in coding. They bring in millions of views and use it to then sell a course to make money.

The reason I started coding back in college is because I liked it. Getting a job was not even a thought in my mind. And that was true for my friends as well with whom I did loads of projects. For the first 3 years, I did not even get paid for the work that I did for various startups. What excited me was that I was learning something new and becoming better at it. That is the attitude I try and develop in the people who come to me to learn coding.

If you want to learn how to code, I would advise you to try and develop an interest in it. Don’t just do it to get a job. You will have a much better time when you finally become a software developer.