The Final Word

A nice little earner

How coding can help us build a smarter society

As I’m writing this, Twitter has been hacked and lots of official blue-tick channels are busy promoting the doubling of

Bitcoin investments. Fortunately, I don’t think any Raspberry Pi accounts were involved.

I hope nobody who reads this magazine fell for the scam. We like to think you’re all a pretty savvy bunch.

But sympathy if you did. I once did an honesty session with a bunch of technology experts and was surprised at how many had fallen for a phishing scam at least once.

I really hope nobody who reads The MagPi was involved in the scam itself. If you were, I say, “boo to you!” Go read some other publication instead.

Besides. If you want to make money with computing, then scamming isn’t the way to do it. Learn computing and coding; learn to control computers. It teaches you to think, to automate boring tasks, and opens up a world of creative fun.

Let’s create

With coding under your belt, you can make games, apps, play around with electronics, build incredible widgets and gizmos. All of which is much more fun than hustling for cybercurrency on Twitter.

This month we wrote a feature on no-nonsense projects. While this may seem trivial to some of our long-term readers, this sort of thing is vital to newcomers. We are keenly aware of our role in helping newcomers overcome the initial hurdles and learn to love computing.

The real, very serious, purpose of Raspberry Pi is to “put the power of computing and digital making into

We are proud to help as many people as possible learn to code

the hands of people”. We think that once we help people understand computers, they can use them to solve the problems that matter to them and “express themselves creatively”. Speaking of which, have you seen Rob’s new game, BBQ DAD (magpi.cc/bbqdad)?

We live in a world of increasing digital complexity. A world where technologies like machine learning and algorithms might as well be ‘magic’ and ‘witchcraft’ to much of the population.

The best thing you can do – the very best thing for both yourself and the world in general – is to learn how computers work. Make sure you grok the stuff that’s going on here. Not only will you be less likely to fall for scams (whether monetary, psychological, or political), you’ll be more likely to end up a more rounded person with a secure life.

Teach a person to fish and they’ll eat for a lifetime. Teach a person to program and you’ll frustrate them for a lifetime. As the joke goes.

Frustrating though coding may be, it’s a lovely skill that’s well worth knowing. You may not get megarich, but you’re more likely to earn the kind of money where you don’t need to be tempted by get-rich-quick schemes. And even if you don’t, you’ll be able to create and make something that you’re proud of.

Computing is a ‘nice little earner’, as the TV show Minder once taught us. It’s also one of the best ways to level up the parts of our country being hit by hardship. I speak from experience here. Computing has helped me move onwards and upwards in life.

We are proud to help as many people as possible learn to code.

AUTHOR

Lucy Hattersley

Lucy is editor of The MagPi and is currently playing around with GUIs and Nand2Tetris. When others go low, she goes low and high at the same time.

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