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Citizen Coder

The idea of bringing coding to the masses (citizen coders as some might call them) has been around for a long time. There were attempts to make this happen in fits and starts since I entered the workforce. Seemed like a good idea back then and in many ways still does. The type of person it would benefit the most would be one who can think and frame a problem for the AI like a programmer but for whatever reason does not or cannot code. Maybe they used to code once but don't anymore. I can see such a user being able to get value out of the system. The value for the active coder has been cited in the post though developers I speak with tell me the value statements in the media a bit overstated. 

They tend to use it to generate sample code snippets to understand how some language or library they are unfamiliar with works. Once they get a hang of it, they do their own thing because really distilling what they need to get done takes a lot more effort than doing it themselves. For someone who codes for a living, coding is not the big lift - thinking through the solution design that will work consistently is much more painstaking. The true citizen coder is one who cannot think like a programmer, has never been one and does not even have any related educational background. Such a person can have very worthwhile, creative and game-changing ideas. Today they would it challenging even to explain what they have in mind in a way that a coder can take action. Much is lost in translation. The real trick is to take what the citizen coders have in mind and convert that to a viable application in a seamless but interactive way. That is definitely a problem worth solving and we are not quite there yet. 

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