Learn to Code — Become a Snake Charmer
In preparation for the next 8-week Exosphere Academy program, I’m getting asked a lot about the selection strategy of the streams (courses).
-A quick reference list : Exosphere Academy Streams for Jan 2017—
01. Blockchain App Development (Decentralize everything)
02. Mars Colonization (Yes, really)
03. Bioremediation & Genetic Engineering (Bringing nature back)
04. Renewable Energy & Nanotech (Powering the future)
05. Alternate Reality Design (Virtual worlds for work and play)
06. Drones & Robotics (Build, race, crash, repeat)
07. Entrepreneurship (Connect all this tech and build startups)
08. Philosophy (Looking inward, then outward to change the world)
09. Python Programming (Virtual snake charming)Ya, there are some unique ones up there, but the one that is drawing the most questions (and applications) is Python programming. Applicants are asking why we chose Python over the gambit of other great languages.
The quick answer(s) is pretty easy. It’s one that most Python users cite — Python is just fun.
It has readable syntax, a great ecosystem, support of Google through many of it’s applications, diverse libraries, and it’s got the giddy-up to do most computational tasks.
Python has a staggering number of quality frameworks, modules, and libraries that allow you to do all sort of cool things.
Using python, you can do everything from create web apps, partake in offensive and defensive cyber operations, GUI development, data analysis, predict stocks (see: gambling), and even build your own machine learning system using TensorFlow to make your own creepy Dogseal knight photos similar to this —
But before I get ahead of myself, let’s talk about why it’s so important from the one side that everyone cares about — providing a living for yourself and family.
The “Career” is Dead
Well, at least the common life script that tells us we can comfortably and easily have one career for our entire adult working life. Now people have multiple careers, or vocations. Vocations as in different life callings at different stages of life — makes sense right?
It’s important to understand that we are all living in the Creative Economy.
No worries if you don’t know about it yet. A major differentiation between this new economy and the old, is that the value you create is provided directly to the end user/customer, rather than your value being filtered through an institution or company and onto the customer.
Think freelance economy, think automation economy, think sharing economy. These make up the larger Creative Economy in which value-creators are already participating.
In this new economy, people with skills like Python programming, can make more money, have more optionality (see: freedom), and derive more meaning from their work by building solutions to real problems.
Now, I won’t mislead you..
Depending on how you design your professional life, there can be a cost for these benefits.
If you want to maximize freedom and optionality, the cost is stability. It often requires you to give up the steady paychecks in favor of variable income.
But as someone who made this switch three years ago, I can tell you, it’s totally worth it.
The main currency of this new economy is adaptability. The world is changing rapidly. As you may have heard, software is eating the world, and A.I. will digest and understand it. This makes it so that all of us must continually learn new skills, and how to quickly adapt to changing landscapes of the market.
Because there are so many awesome and in-demand things you can do with Python, it was the best choice from an adaptability perspective.
As soon as you learn the basics of the language and build a few projects, your overall optionality vastly increases.
Plus, as any seasoned programmer will tell you, if you learn the fundamentals of computer programming with one language, you can pretty easily learn additional languages.
Job Market
Take a look at these charts from Indeed.com —
This first one shows the rise Python has made in absolute terms vs other similar languages in matching job postings. Java is still the leader, but Python is climbing..
Here is the same data, only as a relative chart to show the massive, relative growth.
Here is the icing on the cake.
The two charts above show python job listing growth. This chart shows that of the displayed languages (Python, PHP, C#, & Java), there are fewer job seekers for Python.
That means there is less competition for jobs (win!) and the charts above show the number of jobs for Python is increasing (double win!)
Ok, I hear you, Jerry Maguire, I will show you the money!
According to PayScale.com, depending on what you do with your Python knowledge makes a considerable difference on your expected salary.
But again, this new economy is all about how you design your professional life.
If you’re a mid 20’s single person with no kids, then hey, go crazy, and call me for a beer sometime.
But eventually you will probably start a family and have more responsibilities, like hungry mouths to feed. That’s when you have to have contingency plans.
If you are happy, making good money as a specialized senior engineer and something happens, you may need to quickly learn how to transition to Data Analysis, instead of becoming obsolete.
This is a good thing!
Increased personal freedom and optionality has been the ongoing story of humanity since the beginning of time! Sure, things get a little more chaotic, but otherwise it would get boring.
This is what the Exosphere Academy program is about — bringing together minds from all over the world, to learn new skills, share ideas and experiences, create solutions to problems, and design a new life for yourself.
Now is your chance to design a new lifestyle with the skills, mindset, and network that will make you more sought after by employers and clients.
If you are interested in learning more about the Python Programming stream or any of the others, visit www.exosphe.re
Good things to come,
Luke Blackburn
