The Lone Coder: A True Coding Myth
The Lone Coder — an image we often see in movies. An introverted, self-sufficient hacker, programming solo.
Now throw that image away completely. It’s time to dispel the myth of the Lone Coder.
Every personality test I have ever taken told me I was extremely extroverted. After grad school, I went on to have a great career in sales, then sales leadership and then ultimately fundraising. I loved collaborating with others, communicating and solving problems with my colleagues. I had always been interested in how organizations I worked for created their websites, applications and platforms; I even looked into coding classes to get a feel for what it would be like. I squashed the idea of me being a coder a few times, as I thought I would miss being a part of a team, collaborating and socializing.
After the pandemic hit, I was laid off. Like many others, I didn’t know where to go from there. And then I thought, maybe I will do some research on a career in coding, just to see what is out there. After all, I was laid off — I definitely had a lot of time to do the research and think about what’s next!
After extensive googling, I decided to contact Juno College. They had a ton of coding courses and good reviews on their immersive bootcamp; long story short, I completed their HTML, CSS, JavaScript courses, fell in love with coding and later was accepted into their bootcamp!
After being in these courses, I learned that the myth of the isolated, self-sufficient, lone coder is simply that — A MYTH.
If my personal experience isn’t enough to convince you, here 4 quick reasons that collaboration is ESSENTIAL as a coder:
- Advanced and large scale software is NEVER made by one coder, it is always the work of many.
- There are so many ways to achieve one outcome in coding; speaking with your peers shows you many different paths you can take to achieve your goal (and sometimes, their way is better!).
- Different perspectives lead to more robust software — two or more heads are better than one.
- Coders typically work with marketing or a designer — we typically work cross-functionally and rely on collaborating with many non-coders.
It’s time to dispel the myth of the Lone Coder for once and all; I, for one, am glad to leave it behind.