Listen, Coding Isn't for Everybody, and Here's Why

You’ve probably seen the TikToks, the Instagram reels, or maybe even heard your friend-of-a-friend talking about how learning to code changed their life.

They went from making minimum wage to earning six figures, working remote gigs while sipping lattes in Bali.

Sounds dreamy, right? But here’s the truth: coding isn’t for everyone, and that’s okay.

I know that to someone super passionate about tech and coding, this sounds like a very weird thing to say. But this is where one should begin to question this “coding is the golden ticket” narrative.

Too many people get into programming starry-eyed with high expectations and are then faced with frustration, burnout, or worst of all—regret.

So, let’s unpack why coding isn’t for everyone and what makes it a uniquely challenging career choice.

1. Coding Is Not an Instant Ticket to Easy Money

First, let me clear this up: coding isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme.

Of course, some developers get really well-paid jobs, but that’s not what happens here. You don’t study at a bootcamp for 12 weeks, take up some six-figure remote job, and voilà—that’s it.

Breaking into this tech industry requires great persistence, some time, and, in all honestly, an element of luck as well.

Here’s why:

Entry-Level Jobs Aren’t Always Glamorous. Payscale for junior roles may be decent, but most of your time will be consumed by debugging someone else’s code or doing other tasks that are not that exciting.
It’s Competitive. Everyone and their cat is learning to code these days. You’re not only competing against other fresh grads or bootcamp alumni; you’re also up against seasoned developers pivoting into new roles.
Employers Want Experience. You need to have serious skills for positions that aim for entry-level with the pay to suit. If you specialize in one thing, you’re severely limiting yourself these days; but if you are all over the place and don’t know any one tech stack well enough, you’re not good enough for the job.

It’s not that coding cannot be a lucrative career—it absolutely can. But you’re gonna have to grind for it, and if you’re chasing quick cash, there are easier paths out.

2. Learning to Code Is Harder Than It Looks

Coding gets romanticized as this magical skill where you just type a few lines and, bam, you’ve built the next Facebook.

The reality is, it’s much more like spending hours staring at your screen, trying to figure out why your code is breaking, only to realize you missed a semicolon. (And, no, this isn’t dramatic, I unfortunately deal with this daily).

Note 🤖
Thanks to AI and automation, modern editors like VS Code provide plenty of integrations for a coding partner. ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, and plenty of others offer an AI programmer that is actually pretty neat. I love having a coding buddy to increase my efficiency and help me out. However, these helpful autocompletion tools introduce many minor inconsistencies and bugs that sometimes take longer to resolve than had you written the darn thing from scratch so bug resolution is yet again part of daily programming life—AI or not.

Here’s the thing: learning to code is hard, especially when you have never done anything similar before.

It’s a Different Way of Thinking. Programming obliges you to think in algorithms, logic, and patterns. Sometimes, for some people, it just doesn’t “click,” and that is perfectly fine! But you need to understand how to break down logic into granular bits to develop the machine counterpart and, if you can’t, you need to do some serious reconsidering.
It’s Frustrating at First. After three years of experience, I still spend hours debugging or solving some problems. Imagine being a total beginner and having absolutely no idea where to start! Debugging is one of the most important skills you can ever build when going into programming. I cannot stress this enough—learn to debug, and you’ll thank me for it.
It’s Constantly Changing and Evolving. You’ll never “finish” learning a language. You’ll never become the ultimate expert for a tech stack. There’s always going to be a new feature or version or whole new technology that will be introduced be it five years, a year, a month, or a week from now. Becoming a developer means you need to continue learning and evolving. If you don’t like constant change or don’t feel up to always brushing up on things, coding won’t do it.

For you, if explosive instant gratification is how you live, then coding will test your patience. Of course, it pays off, but only after going through many trials and errors.

3. The Industry Never Stops Evolving

I touched on this above, but it’s serious so here it comes again.

Imagine this—you finally learn your programming language, feeling so prepared to take on the world, only then to find out those tools you just learned became outdated.

Well, welcome to the tech industry!

One of the biggest challenges faced by developers is definitely keeping up with evolving technology.

New languages, new frameworks, and new tools emerge every now and then, which means that if you want to stay relevant, you’ll always be learning.

As recap:

Coding is an Ongoing Process. The moment you become a developer, you aren’t done learning; rather, you’ve committed to lifelong education. If you refuse to learn, you’re out—sorry.
Coding Can Be Overwhelming. Between your job, side projects, and keeping up with the latest trends, burnout is a real risk. It’s why a cricket farm is growing on the THT since I’m too busy to even build a small project. In fact, this post took more days than it should have due to my schedule of endless debugging, custom architecting, and consistent refactoring as I work toward a custom headless setup for work. Though exciting, it’s exhausting (an exhaustion of 6+ months FYI).

If you are not one of those people who just enjoy learning for learning’s sake, this would be an exhausting catch-up cycle.

Coding is not like riding a bike; it is more like running on a treadmill that never stops.

4. It’s Not Always as Flexible as You’d Think

Now, about this “digital nomad” dream: yeah, coding can give you a way to work remotely and have a flexible schedule, but it’s not all rainbows and sunshine.

Many coding jobs still have deadlines to meet, meetings to attend, and bugs to fix at 2 am.

Tip ‼️
Always verify with a prospective employer what “remote” means for them. I’ve encountered situations where you either need to be solely within the borders of the employer’s country or can only work from abroad for a specific duration (after which you’re access to their systems is blocked). Again, it’s not easy to travel the world while working, don’t be fooled by employer advertising lingo.

Here’s the reality: the internet never sleeps. Whether you work with a startup, an outsourcer, or your app, your hours aren’t well defined.

One thing about time zones, client demands, or production with that pesky bug that takes longer may keep you bonded with a laptop more often and longer than you may intend.

Sure, some great remote jobs exist out there, but many companies still require you to be online during their business hours.

So, if you envision yourself coding on a beach in Thailand, just know you’ll probably have sand in your keyboard and Slack notifications interrupting your sunset view.

5. Where Creativity Meets Constraints

One of the coolest things about coding is that it is a creative process. You’re essentially solving problems and building things from scratch.

How cool is that?

But here’s the catch: it’s not always as creatively fulfilling as people think.

Why?

You’re Solving Other People’s Problems. Most coding jobs are about fulfilling client or company needs, not building passion projects. And, take it from someone with firsthand experience, meeting those needs takes up a majority of your time and energy.
Constraints Are Everywhere. Budgets, deadlines, and technical limitations can all inhibit creative freedom. Want to integrate that cool new cloud service to facilitate incremental builds and speed up build time for your site by 120%? Well, pray the budget supports the purchase ‘cause if not, you’re looking for another quarter or two (or a year?) to make it happen.

So, if you’re a person who needs to express yourself artistically, coding might not scratch that itch in the way you’d hoped.

6. Impostor Syndrome Is Real

I’ll be fully transparent with you, coding can be really undermining.

Even senior developers at times feel like frauds, especially if working on complex projects or are around some insanely talented individuals. Impostor syndrome is real, and quite tough to shake.

It often feels like, within the tech world, you’re constantly proving yourself.

Be it nailing that technical interview, shipping a perfect product, or keeping up with the latest trends—the pressure is on. There’s always something you’ll need to fix or adjust, some new expectation to meet, even when you’re “finished” with an assignment.

If you are someone who struggles with self-doubt, consider how you’ll handle those feelings in a high-pressure environment.

Should You Still Learn to Code?

Look, I’m not here to discourage anyone from learning to code. I came into software development from a non-traditional background myself, I’ve been at the very start of it all.

Coding is an amazing skill, and it can lead to incredible opportunities. But I think it’s important to go into it with your eyes wide open.

If you are the one who enjoys problem-solving, loves to learn continually, and does not mind a little frustration en route, then coding is the thing for you.

However, if you’re in it just because of the paycheck, the freedom, or the prestige, you may want to reconsider your motivations.

The good news is that coding is not the only way to success. There are so many ways of building a fulfilling career, and fitting your strengths, passions, and goals.

If you try coding and it isn’t for you, don’t sweat it. Careers don’t work on a one-size-fits-all basis, and the tech industry does need all kinds of talent—not just developers.

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, coding is a challenging but rewarding career, and it’s not for everyone—which is okay.

If you do choose to jump in, make sure it’s for the right reasons, and don’t be surprised when you encounter a few speed bumps. Because you will and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Remember me reminding you right now that your worth is not defined by your coding capability. You are so much more than that, way beyond career choices, and success comes in many ways.

Take a deep breath; go with your instinct, and just trust that it will work out.

Until next time 😉

Listen, Coding Isn’t for Everybody, and Here’s Why