I get a lot of questions about programming but i don't think they're the right questions to ask questionslike 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 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 you 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 innoator 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 aglobal 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 2021 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 !