Feb. 25, 2025 | Demir Antay

Why Learning Coding is Still Useful

I have been laid off since the last purge in tech.

I can’t find a job for more than the past 2 years and I cannot get a lot of freelance contracts.

But I still think tech is the future and you should learn it. Why

Because it is the work of the future.

It is the tool we build with

I don’t think tech in the sense of cushy 9-5 jobs that are starting with 100k base a yearly salary with bonuses will make a comeback.

That gold rush era of tech has ended in my opinion.

However, learning how to code is still so useful because it is the only tool you have with AI to build your dreams and products in the new age of digitalism and the internet.

Every Age Gives Us It’s Tools

In the transformative years of the 1500s, we finished 3 inventions that opened a new age that built the modern age that we live in today in the Atlantic Ocean.

Those inventions were big sailing ships (that could travel long voyages), the portolan chart (provided detailed maps, much more than just the Mediterranean), and the compass (so that you don’t lose your way on those maps).

And with the invention and advancement of just 3 items the Europeans first discovered America, Latin America, and Africa, And new routes to Asia.

Everything got connected but the main area that they built this world was the Atlantic Ocean.

And up until the 2008 and 2020 crisis we still heavily used big shipment containers that carried trade with just extremely advanced compasses and maps.

Even though you advance it does not mean that the underlying inventions get to change.

We still heavily relied on those 3 inventions up until the last 15 years and still use them heavily today.

However, a new age of techno-digitalism has emerged and we are at the start of it.

We have been in it for at least 40 years now so in my opinion it has already shown its inventions that it wants us to use.

I think they are: AI, Social Media, and the Internet.

I think those 3 items will be here to stay for the next 500 years and they will only get better day by day.

At the bottom of all 3 you have code.

Code is and already is becoming like a subject like mathematics. You need to learn and invest in it to survive in this new age.

Okay but how does this connect to a failed tech job?

So let’s be real for a second and not think too much about the sociological change of this age.

How do we earn from coding and technology when literally no one else is hiring?

Why should I spend so much of my time learning technical jargon and frameworks when I won’t get any job out of it?

I think that is an old way of thinking. We are in more creative work right now and probably be in the future.

The 9-5 job/corporate system is collapsing.

No more job security, the employees do not want to spend their whole life in a single building climbing the corporate ladder.

Everything is becoming gig-based so you can set your time.

Big companies like Google and other tech giants are turning to contractor/freelance roles even for their big projects because it is easier to deal with and less expensive.

So if everything is going that way, I am going to adapt.

I see and will utilize code in this way:

• I will gain the new land (which is social media)
• I will build a castle on top of it (digital products, digital assets)
• I will work with digital tools for that castle (AI and Code)

This is where tech and AI come into play.

I think people are becoming lunatics with this technology.

AI research was founded in 1956, and modern coding (assembly language) was used in 1949. Those things are not new, we have been using them for at least 70 years now.

It seems new because as a society we just accepted to use of those tools as the new way rather than the old way of commerce.

That is why all of the hype train is starting right now.

You still need to learn technology without the hype train in order to build out the castle.

How do we integrate coding/tech into our work then?

Well down below here are the things that I am implementing:

• In these actionable steps, I will be talking about the tools (Tech and AI) instead of talking about the castle and the land (digital products and content/data). I will talk about them in later posts.

• I stopped devoting my time to learning full-stack frameworks or logic based on full-stack development.

  It has been the first area where AI is extremely good at producing code.

  So instead of devoting my time to specializing in that area, I would rather be a generalist full-stack developer.

• I will be heavily learning AI development and Machine Learning and Math concepts because I believe if I have a powerful command of the tools, I can build one of the best castles in the digital land.

• Also for strength, I have a project and it is a long-term one, after completing my two deep work sessions I would like to dedicate my last 90-minute block to learning a big mastery project for tech (my tools) if I am not learning something related to AI or humanities.

  That mastery project involves building an OS, Compiler GPU, and small AI model from scratch.

  It is an ambitious project but I am giving it 10-15 years to learn and do it and I am not dedicating practical deep work time to this.

  It is a tribute to my tool skills as a craftsman.

• I will try to build at least one new digital product every month or two because I need practicality in my deep work.

  You cannot just learn how to use the tools or the theory behind the tools. You need to build a castle on the digital land that you have.

  Those things can be indie saas apps, courses, communities, memberships, subscription apps, hardware tech .. etc.

  Whatever, just have a general asset list and loop iterations through all of them so that your tools don’t get rusty.

Anyway, this is it for today’s writing.

I hope you enjoyed this, I will be trying to mix minimalism, technical ideas, and mental health ideas into a coherent journal dump on these writings.

Because I truly believe this is the true way to gain digital land, rather than becoming an influencer.

Use the above information as you wish.

Thanks for reading. Have a nice day.

Demir