So, you’re wondering, “Can Coding Be A Hobby?”. We’ll let me be the first one to tell you that coding can definitely be a hobby and there are plenty of great reasons to learn how to code.
How Can Coding Be A Hobby?
For people who don’t yet know how to code, it can be challenging to see how coding can be a hobby. However, there are a lot of different ways that people use code to fill both their social lives and personal time.
As A Form of Creation
At the end of the day, creating code is an art form. It is equally as creative as painting, drawing, making music, or any other creative skill. How do I know? Because I do all of these things!
With code, you can literally build anything you could ever imagine on a computer. The beautiful part about this hobby is that you can easily mix coding with any other hobby or pastime you enjoy doing.
Do you enjoy visual arts? Start learning about creative coding and building breathtaking works of art meant to awe and inspire. Do you like music? You can create your own program to function as its own instrument.
What about video games? Well, obviously you make videos game with code too! This course looks absolutely “unreal” and a great place to start if you want to learn game development. It will be challenging, but if you can get a handle on C++ all other programming languages are going to seem like a breeze!
Hackathons
Coding can get lonely from time to time. Luckily there are tons of ways for you to take this amazing hobby and make it social. The easiest way to meet new people who also love to code is at Hackathons.
Hackathons involve a group of coders who gather, code, and often compete with each other for a specific duration of time. During the event, there is a specific goal that is attempted to be met via a piece of software or hardware. The projects that are built are typically called “hacks”.
Hackathons are a great way to meet new friends, become a better developer, and even get noticed by recruiters and land a job!
Online Games
In addition to creating personal coding projects and hackathons, coding can also be a hobby through playing special programming games.
There are a ton of programming games online that range from kid’s games, beginner coding games, and even advanced coding games.
In addition to these, there are also a ton of great algorithm challenge sites like Codewars and HackerRank that are often used recreationally to improve your skills.
Why Is Coding Such A Good Hobby?
So hopefully, you can see how coding is often done not only as a profession but as a hobby as well.
Now I want to touch on some of the main reasons why coding is such a great hobby to have.
1. It Is A Great Mental Excercise
While I think there is a big issue in the tech industry related to mental health, the actual act of coding is a great way to stimulate your mind and improve your cognitive abilities.
When you spend a lot of your time solving problems, you end up getting pretty good at it! Coding is amazing because it can drastically improve your overall problem-solving skills. This in turn helps you to solve problems in other aspects of your life.
Not only does learning how to code make you a better problem solver, but it also gives you more confidence in solving problems.
Before I started coding, I was always very quick to give up on solving specific problems. Since I couldn’t spin up a solution immediately, I also assumed there was no easy and elegant solution to the problem.
As I began learning how to code, I realized that the perspective of how you look at a problem is the key to coming up with an elegant solution. Understanding that there is always an actionable solution to a problem does wonders in helping you solve the problems you face every day.
Whether that solution is coming up with creative ways to stick to a budget, how to become a millionaire or ways to live a healthier life.
The problem-solving and research skills you learn as a programmer will help you in every facet of your life. Even if you don’t code for a living!
2. It Will Make You Better At Your Job
Now, if you do code for a living, this is where the real benefits of coding as a hobby come in.
The main reason coding is such a great job for some people is because they really love to do it. For most people, having a dream job is unrealistic or often can’t make you as much money as you might hope. However, if you love to code, there is no better job out there.
If you can go to work every day doing what you love and still come home from time to time and keep coding, you know you’ve found your career path.
Not only does this mean you’ll be content with your work but it also means you will be a lot better than your co-workers.
I have met and worked with many coders in my life. Let me be the one to tell you that the best coders are often the ones who really enjoy coding and do it as a hobby. Putting in the extra hours to learn concepts and patterns outside of work has really helped me write better code in my day-to-day job.
While at work, you might feel pressured by deadlines to get something done as soon as possible. This means that you may not spend as much time on the planning and research phase as you should be. If you do code outside of work, there is a good chance you have already faced similar problems and can more easily solve problems at work.
Having the benefit of programming as a hobby means that your job is going to be much less stressful and you’re going to produce better code than your colleagues that don’t code as a hobby.
3. It Is Incredibly Challenging And Rewarding
The third reason programming is such a great hobby is because it’s incredibly rewarding and fun. When I was a kid, I used to spend way too much time playing video games. Once I learned how to code, I realized that I actually got very similar enjoyment from code that I got from video games.
The only difference was that coding was much more challenging than most games I played. So the highs I get from coding are much less frequent than from a video game. However, they were also much more rewarding!
That’s right kids, don’t do drugs. Code a game instead.
Learning how to code can be incredibly addictive. The feeling of being frustrated and confused for hours or days can easily be offset from the moment you final solve a difficult problem. It helps boost your mood and confidence, making you feel like anything really is possible.
At least, that’s the effect it had on me!
4. It An Incredibly Useful Skill
Finally, coding is a great hobby because it’s simply a great skill to have. Coding is one of the most in-demand skills across any role and it’s unlikely to slow down anytime soon. There simply are not enough people in the world who know how to code!
Learning how to code helps set you up for a brighter future. You bring a strong asset with you no matter what path you go down in life.
Whether it’s the fact that your skillset directly helps you solve problems at work or from the unique perspective at problem-solving that learning to code gives you.
No matter what it is, programming as a hobby is an incredibly useful skill and is anything but a waste of time!
Wrapping Up
So that’s pretty much it! Coding can most definitely be a hobby and hopefully, I have convinced you that it is a good hobby to learn.
Coding can be used as a form of creation, to meet and connect with new people, and can be incredibly fun.
Learning how to code is a great mental exercise, will make you better at your job, is very rewarding, and simply one of the most in-demand and useful skills to have under your belt.
If you are a new developer and want to learn web development, check out my free guide here.
If you want to check out some great, reputable courses to start programming as a hobby, udemy is a great place to start.
As always, happy coding!
