I recently listened to a Tim Ferriss’ interview of Karlie Kloss on his podcast ‘The Tim Ferriss Show’ . I really loved how Kloss describes coding as a language for creative expression and a powerful enterprise tool that enables and empowers.

For those of you who are not familiar with Kloss, she is an American model and entrepreneur, and was a Victoria’s Secret Angel from 2011 to 2014. Kloss went from walking the runway to empowering girls through coding. Her organisation, Kode with Klossy, sends girls aged 13-18 to Summer code camps for free.

 

 

In the Tim Ferriss interview, Kloss talks about why coding is creative and powerful. Coding is a tool and literacy that allows people to express themselves and their creative ideas. What makes a great coder is not the languages they know or how fast they can type lines of code, but rather that their code is elegant and they have the ability to find non-obvious solutions. It’s about being curious, and not knowing syntax. Kloss was curious and wanted to find out more about coding because she could see it impacting creative industries, which traditionally has been the domain of humans and not computers. So she undertook a one week coding bootcamp, then she was hooked.

Kloss says that coding is not just for engineers who are building huge enterprise value, but it is also a core skill in entrepreneurship. In order to build a tech business, you may not need to be the key engineer and write lines of code, but you most likely will need to have the literacy, be able to understand the principles of technology creation, and that it enables and scales ideas and problem solving. Learning to code is not just about becoming a coder, but it is about understanding how technology works and how industries and jobs are changing.

Digital literacy is about having the fundamentals, the ABCs, and how to build with it. It is about having the skills to create ideas and impact communities. Coding is about creating, enabling and empowering.

Kloss was curious but also intimidated by the prospect of learning to code. She was a fashion model and had not been to college. Her experience at coding bootcamp allowed her to realise that coding is a learnable skill. Kloss wants to share the message that recognising that skills are learnable is particularly important when you are trying to figure out who you are and what you will be. Learning to code is not about academic smarts, but rather curiosity.

If you’re interested to find out more