The practice of coding in 2026 is worlds away from when it was first developed.

When Ada Lovelace came up with the first ever computer program, who could have imagined that not only would we be doing all kinds of things with computers today, but we would also be quite literally talking to them? Every programmer is indebted to the ones who came before them, because they would not be able to do their jobs to this extent otherwise.

The database of code that we have these days is indeed far more than just one puny database, and it sprawls all over different programming languages and methods of production. This is just one of the reasons that identifying yourself as a coder can mean numerous different things. We need those who know how to make computers and their programs work, but sometimes there are specialties that the elderly relative looking for somebody to fix their printer just can’t get their head around.

In theory, all that somebody needs to be a programmer is a machine to do it on, but that can often seem like it is far from the case in practice. There are so many things to learn, specialties to get into, and projects to get sidetracked by. Most important of all is the ability to understand the memes, which are a crucial piece of the puzzle for anybody who learns to code. They might not be the most educational, but they give you a good idea of the culture.