the right questions to ask questions like how many languages do I need to

learn what language do I need to learn to get to company X what's the

difference between a and B and which makes more money what are the exact

steps I need to take to become Z what kind of program should I write to build

up my resume so why don't I like these questions because it feels like the

people who are asking these questions they are learning how to program just

for the sake of learning how to program but programming is just a tool being a

programmer for me means you write code to automate things or to make things

perform certain actions for example programming a refrigerator to turn on

the light when you open the door when you think about it programming is

actually kind of boring you're just giving a series of instructions to a

machine over and over again until you get it right I don't want to speak for

all of you but I think if the pay wasn't great I don't think a lot of you would

spend hours and hours every night in front of your computer trying to learn

how to code or to just debug your program sometimes we get caught up

learning languages or doing coding challenges or fantasizing about you know

working for these big tech companies that we forget why we wanted to learn

programming in the first place you wanted to program because you saw the

amazing things that can be built using programming so don't just learn how to

program build something that matters build something that means

build something that solves a problem you're a problem-solver a creator an

innovator you're not a programmer programming is just a tool in your

arsenal to build something amazing you can be analytical creative empathetic

and programming allows you to express those qualities of yourself but

programming in of itself is nothing special it's like a pencil it can mark

stuff down if you press on the pen so hard enough that's it but with a pencil

you can write novels draw beautiful portraits build plans for a skyscraper

or anything eliminated only by your imagination

you don't learn how to program to get into Google you learn how to program to

build something meaningful something that helps real people with real

problems I'm partnered with IBM today to talk

about a global initiative called call for code which calls for developers to

build something impactful and have a positive change across the world through

their code as you know there are hundreds and hundreds of natural

disasters every year like hurricanes earthquakes floods volcanoes and

wildfires those affect numerous lives and causes tremendous damage to many

families around the world if you strive for real impact we desperately need you

this is why 2018 call for code global challenge is a competition that asks

people like you to build solutions to improve what we can do to reduce

disruptive impact of these natural disasters we need all kinds of

technologies you like working on blockchains build secure supply networks

to help distribute aid to the people in need you're like AI are NLP make BOTS to

help real-time communications to them you're into data science analyze and

predict what the affected population needs before they even ask for it every

one of your project will matter and it will be for an extremely good cause now

of course it is still a competition so they have a grand prize of $200,000 not

only that the project the greatest potential impact will be implemented

with the help of IBM the new Linux Foundation the UN Human Rights and the

American Red Cross sorry offers challenge so don't forget

don't be a programmer be a problem solver

going to call for code