Digital Language: Why Coding Is As Essential As Reading and Writing

Why Coding Is As Essential As Reading and Writing

When the printing press was invented, it didn’t just change how stories were shared.
It reshaped entire societies because literacy became the foundation for communication, business, and knowledge.

Today, we are living through the same kind of shift.
But the new literacy isn’t just reading and writing.
It is coding.

Why Coding Still Matters in the Age of AI

Everywhere you look, people are saying we won’t need to code anymore because AI can generate it for us.
That is like saying we don’t need to learn how to read because audiobooks exist.
Or that writing doesn’t matter because you can dictate into your phone.

AI can make things easier, but the ability to communicate at a basic level with machines is what unlocks control, trust, and automation.

Coding is the most direct, logical framework for humans to talk to machines.
Without it, we are stuck hoping the machine interprets our intent correctly.
With it, we know how to debug, correct, and build systems that actually serve us.

How BallCode Fits Into This

That is exactly what I have been working on with BallCode.co.

BallCode is a sports coding language that connects basketball with programming.
At first, it sounds crazy, but when you look closer the connection is obvious.

• Every possession is an if/then statement
• Every defensive rotation is a loop
• Every read is pattern recognition

By turning basketball decision-making into code, kids start to see that programming isn’t abstract.
It is systematic thinking.
It is the same process they are already using on the court, just translated into a different language.

Coding Is Literacy for the Future

Here is the truth:

• Reading lets us connect to ideas
• Writing lets us create and share ideas
• Coding lets us automate ideas

Without coding, we are consumers of machine intelligence.
With coding, we become creators who shape it.

And just like reading and writing, coding doesn’t need to be complicated.
It just needs to be relatable.
That is the whole point of BallCode: teaching kids the machine’s language through a game they already love.

The Bigger Picture

We don’t stop teaching kids to read just because voice to text exists.
We don’t stop teaching them to write just because AI can summarize.

So why would we stop teaching coding just because AI can code?

Coding isn’t just about syntax.
It is about learning to think systematically, recognize patterns, and express logic.
That is the foundation for automation, and the foundation for every future job.

The next generation doesn’t just need to use machines.
They need to speak their language.

Final Thought

If reading and writing were the superpowers of the industrial era, coding is the superpower of the digital era.

It is how we unlock control, automation, and creativity.

And the earlier we teach it in ways that feel natural and fun the better prepared our kids will be.

That is what BallCode is all about.