Tiger parents are obsessed with getting their children to excel in mathematics and English. So, this is a puzzle which struck me while reading about Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook's coming initial public offering. Why don't local parents encourage children to learn how to write software programs? Why don't local schools make computer coding a core part of the curriculum?
What do Zuckerberg and Microsoft's Bill Gates have in common besides being zillionaires? Both taught themselves coding as teenagers, became masters at it and built a multibillion-dollar industry that has come to define the future for everyone. They were not born businessmen; they were born to code. Like many highly successful people, they followed their passions, and the money and business empire followed them.
Coding is halfway between maths and human language. It is also best learnt when young. It is something you can learn on your own, but it can also be taught formally. It requires an eye for structures and pattern recognition, the kind of ability conducive to studying maths.
It is also a kind of literacy, which sadly many highly educated people don't have. To master a foreign language is more than learning syntax, grammar and vocabulary. It is to enter a different culture that sees and organises the world in its own way. Coding is like that. It is at the intersection of technology and humanities, the common language that speaks to both domains. Once learnt, it provides plenty of room for creativity and individuality. That's why there is a whole borderless, underground culture of hackers, code-breakers, criminals and billionaires whose common trait is a knowledge of computer coding.
It is no exaggeration that contemporary civilisation runs on computer software and the networks they spawn. So-called apps are in effect lower-level and less complicated programming. Their proliferation, made popular by Apple devices, has created a new generation of coders, as the technical skills required are less demanding, yet no less useful. It's time Hong Kong makes coding a literacy requirement.