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If you could not code anymore, what would you do?

Christian Vasquez on July 11, 2018

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Maria Boldyreva • Edited

I would cry, honestly. Then I'd become a yoga instructor, still crying, though.

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Christian Vasquez

You just made my day! hahahahaha

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Maria Boldyreva

I'm glad :)

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Sergei Munovarov

I think it would be nice to test everything and update the documentation.

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Andy Lu

I'm assuming the question is "if you could not code anymore and money was not a problem..."; on that note, I had a few ceramics classes in college and it was pretty fun.

It's like a website you can hold: the end product tells you a bit about the maker, there are good practices, there are bad practices, you can make them for people, etc etc

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Avalander

I'd become a writer and write science fiction and cheesy romance novels.

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jonrgrover

You could certainly write cheesy science-fiction-romance novels. I've read a couple. They are sort of fun.

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Jess Lee

Open a bakery/restaurant for people who are diabetic and/or on the keto diet 🍪

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Ben Halpern

I think building houses seems like a lot of fun—if it were more like programming, where I can kind of figure it out as I go and experiment freely.

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Casey Brooks

That's why I like woodworking, making furniture and stuff! A lot of the same skills and tools as building houses (which I also liked the few times I've done it) except you can totally just figure it out on the way! Also like programming, there's no shortage of great YouTube videos of people building cool stuff and teaching you how.

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Dan Benge • Edited

I tried to get into woodworking, but I kept running into other woodworkers with missing fingers. With my capacity for being a klutz, I decided to move on over to 3D printing. Now I just burn myself on the nozzle occasionally. :)

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Ben Halpern

Sigh. Serious woodworking is just a bit impractical in my city apartment at the moment. But I have other hobbies. 🙂

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Andy Lu

You could make spoons! Just be careful because the knives are SUPER sharp.

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Arnaud Morisset • Edited

I will do the other things I have in mind and which I never give time 'cause I'm always learning something related to programming.

That includes brewing, selling games (mostly board games and tabletop RPG) and writing articles for webzines on the web (and why not animating some podcasts too!).

And if a little bit of programming was still allowed, I will probably do some game programming too. :)

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Meghan (she/her)

I’d become a therapist

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Frank Carr

I'm not sure how that would happen, other than nobody wanting to hire me due to my age. Even then, I'd probably do some programming of some type.

Other than that, I'd probably expand my arts and crafts side business. Mainly that would include building guitars and oddball stringed instruments and creating paintings and mixed media works.

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Fabian Holzer

The professions I'd consider as an alternative would be paramedic and teacher.

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Nancy Deschenes

Sleep?

Joking aside, I would hope the reason I can't code anymore is because I'm too busy designing and architecting. I would get to be as creative, but without having to do the work. That really wouldn't be a terrible hardship.

I could also see going back to university and studying in any of a dozen fields that I find interesting; languages/linguistics, history, physics, biology,... and maybe find a position teaching. Or maybe writing.

If I don't have to earn a living, even better, then I can finally get around to all those hobbies that get pushed to "later, when I have time". Yes, definitely those university courses, but maybe less focused, choosing courses based on how I feel that semester. Drawing, painting, skating, writing, dancing cooking,...

I might even have time to stay in shape!

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Paul Bird

I'd be a blacksmith.

I've thought about this question many of times. Or I like to ask myself what if electricity was never discovered. Seems people all have similar ideas. The need to create.

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AndreKelvin

Probably switch to networking

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Nada Ghanem

I 'll Join the kids. The only folks who really have fun.

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Mikk Pristavka

I would get into blacksmithing, carpentry, metalworking, jewelry or anything else involving my two hands, a bunch of raw material, some tools and something wonderful to be created.

Or go back to school, this time trying to actually finish -- most likely psychology or neurochemistry or something similar to help people with faulty wiring.

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Quentin Sonrel

I guess I would finally have the time to learn guitar properly and really get into music. Not as a job though, I have no idea what job I would (and could) do if I was not a developer.

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Andy Lu

Also, what's your answer Christian?

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Christian Vasquez

Hey Andy,

I think I would either go for UI and/or UX design, I've found myself reading articles and listening to TED talks about it lately, and I just can't get enough of it.

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Dídac

Probably I will do DIY stuff woodworking, electronics, etc..

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rhymes

I would become an anthropologist

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jonrgrover

I would go into data science or become a Jazz Musician, data science if I still had my vision, and Jazz Musician if I could not code because of the loss of my vision.

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Rafal Pienkowski

I'd like to become a car mechanic with a specialization in young timer cars like Mercedes Benz W124 😊

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Dan Benge

Video Games Journalist

That would be my dream, anyways. :)

Of course if I hadn't stopped what I was doing before coding, I would still be Assistant Manager of a movie theater.

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IMRC21

Probably a photographer lol

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Guido Vizoso

Finances and economic stuff. I find the learning curve similar to the one I have learning new coding stuff. And I love it!

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Levi Albuquerque

I love learning new languages so I'd probably be an English/French/Portuguese teacher :)

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Andy Zhao (he/him)

The thing I wanted to do before code was be a therapist or a social worker of sorts. I think that's still true, but I could see myself doing something with repairing or fixing.

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George Stefanis

I'd pursue a chef or a carpenter career. I love both cooking and woodworking.