The Rise of the Coder

In the past 10 years or so the term "coder" seems to have entered the vernacular with more frequency. And for good reason, too. Increasingly, our lives are turning more and more to online platforms for activities that, in most of our lifetimes, were done purely the old fashioned way. And this has only been accelerated by the Covid pandemic. The evolution of our digital lives is accelerating.

I can still remember writing letters long hand and putting them in the mail box when I was a kid. Or driving all over god's country whenever you wanted to compare prices or selection for something you wanted to buy. Or my parents paying exorbitant fees to speak with relatives in England via long distance phone call from the US. I remember doing this myself in my first few years living in Japan after moving over here. Or having to speak on the phone with an actual human or physically going to the bank whenever you needed to make a deposit or withdrawal. Wow, what a hassle. It's amazing to think how much of your day it all took and how much more effort it took to get anything done.

Today there are very few activities that cannot be at least initiated if not completed entirely online; and all from our "phones", as well. And who do we have to thank for this? Aside from the entrepreneurs and brilliant computer scientists who pioneered the technologies and built the original networks tying it all together, we have the coder.