Learning technological skills and coding is of course very advantageous in our digital economy. But this article pushes back on the tendency to emphasize coding to the detriment of creativity. There will come a point (probably not too far off) when computers can do a lot of the coding we do now. “Creativity will be increasingly be the defining human talent,” so we should educate accordingly. Creativity is the human spark that is responsible for driving progress and change, which, as Schumpeter reminded us, are the heart of capitalism. “Our education system should emphasise the use of human imagination to spark original ideas and create new meaning.”
Peter, great article, thanks for sharing. As someone with a liberal arts degree, it’s great to read that “creativity” still matters. It has been fascinating in recent years to see the battle between advocates of 4-year liberal arts degrees and those pushing for more vocation/trade schools. It will be interesting to see how AI impacts this debate and if this will tip the scales back in favor of 4-year, liberal arts degrees that focus on learning how to think and be creative.
Although I can understand the points brought up by the author, I still disagree with him. It is true that machines, such as super computers, are able to process super-intelligent code and execute many functions that could take humans years to complete. But humans, specifically coders, are those who manage these systems. Coding is creativity in of itself because of its infinite ways to execute/perform functions. It allows one’s brain to attack a problem/situation through a different lens. However, I do agree that the current education system does need to improve, but eliminating coding curriculum is not the answer because coding can generate creativity.