There&#x27;s a lot of back-and-forth over whether it is easy or not or whether one comparison or another works best.<p>I think it&#x27;s fine to compare learning to write code with learning to write human language. The best of us will still make mistakes; plenty of us will always be incapable of writing well. Once upon a time the idea that everyone needed to know how to write was laughable. These days, it&#x27;s arguable how well everyone needs to be able to write, but there&#x27;s a general agreement that it&#x27;s worth giving people the opportunity to reach at least a basic level of competency, even if their daily lives require little writing.<p>I had a miserable time learning to write (i.e., failed many assignments) until a few things fell into place, and I saw how writing could be an important part of thinking, learning, feeling, expressing, etc. I had a miserable time learning to code through coursework in highschool and college until a few things fell into place and I saw how code could be an important part of thinking, learning, feeling, expressing, etc.<p>How did&#x2F;do we sell everyone on trying to learn to write human language? AFAIK, with some superlative rhetoric about how useful&#x2F;necessary writing can be without much dithering over what portion of the population will ever be good enough to make a living at it.<p>So there are varying levels of irresponsibility when it comes to saying everyone should code. There&#x27;s probably a big potential social upside to fudging things a little to suggest everyone should learn some programming throughout school; it&#x27;s much more negligent to tell someone with a boring but stable job to quit and blow a few grand on a coding bootcamp without an inkling that they&#x27;re prepared.