Coding in 2026 is STILL a Superpower (Even with AI)

0:00For decades, knowing how to code has been a superpower. Building and selling a software business is still one of the fastest ways I know to create life-changing wealth. But now, with AI able to write code in seconds, everyone's asking, "Is it even worth learning to code anymore?" I'm Rob Walling. I've built and sold multiple SAS companies, and I've invested in more than 230 startups. Learning to code changed my career, and it changed my life. But the landscape is shifting fast and in this video I'm going to look at whether learning to code is still a smart move and exactly how I'd approach it if I were starting from scratch in

0:342026. Make sure you stick around to the end cuz I'm going to dive into the one thing I think you must have if you're thinking about pursuing a career in software development. Here's the truth. Even with all the advances in AI, learning to code is still one of the highest leverage skills you can learn for many reasons. The first is that it teaches problem solving and systems thinking. Coding isn't just about typing syntax into a computer. It teaches you how to break a problem into parts, how to reason through dependencies, how to build algorithms and logic flows, how to debug, how to optimize, how to think

1:08about performance and cost. These are cognitive skills that transfer way beyond writing a while loop. I haven't written production code in more than 10 years, but I would be so much better at wrangling no code or a complicated spreadsheet than someone who has never learned to code. The second reason coding is still relevant is the last

1:25mile of building a working application. So there's obviously a lot of no code tools. There's AI coding assistance and there's a lot of abstraction layers that can help you build products. But the unique value often lies in the last 10% last 20% of work. Calling this the last mile. This is highly customized and complex logic, systems architecture, real constraints, performance

1:48trade-offs, security, and integrations. These are things AI still struggles with. It doesn't get you past that last mile. And so, learning to code can be the skill that gets you there. The third reason is that learning to code crosses over to many other roles and disciplines. So if you're working in product, in marketing, in operations, in analytics, understanding how to code or at least how code works and how complex

2:14systems work give you a major advantage. Knowledge of coding can help you in almost any office job I can possibly think of. In addition, it improves your ability to interact and speak with engineers, to know what's feasible, to estimate timelines and sense risk. So it becomes part of your toolkit, your skill set. It's not just for developer roles, but for almost any office role that I know of. And the fourth reason coding is still relevant today is market demand for developers remains strong. Coding skills continue to be in demand across many industries and levels of complexity. One career skills analysis indicates that even in 2026, software

2:51development and coding represents 31% of the fastest growing occupations. And nearly half of all US jobs paying over certain thresholds require some coding skills. There's never been a better, more accessible time to learn to code. Going to college or university is obviously valuable, but you don't need it to learn to code. In fact, at many universities, the curriculum is often 10 or more years behind what we're actually using in production. Tuition is extremely expensive, and coding doesn't require a degree. College is great for maturity. It's great for probably networking, learning how to learn, getting a little older before you start the grind of a job, but it is not the

3:31best option for up-to-date coding skills. You don't need to go into six figures of debt to enter this industry. That's good cuz unlike other professions, be becoming a doctor, a psychologist, software and startups let you prove yourself by shipping, by what you do. The industry values results over credentials. It's can you build, can you ship, can you maintain? If you're a founder, can you grow a company? These skills stay valuable even if you move

3:57away from hands-on coding like I have. So, if not college, how would I think about actually learning how to code in 2026? First option is self-learning books and free resources. This is what I learned from, but it was a while ago. It was a few decades and it was before the internet had gotten really good at teaching. So, I learned from books. It's still valid if you like reading and can learn from books. But today there is an embarrassment of riches beyond books, YouTube channels, blogs, online communities, even chat GPT or Claude or your AI of choice can be a coding teacher for you. A second option are

4:34online courses and paid training. So think of online platforms like front-end mentor or boot.dev. They offer graded exercises, projectbased learning, and they're very affordable compared to college. Or you could buy packaged video courses from trusted instructors. If you follow someone on YouTube, you can tell they know what they're doing and they have a paid video course that really goes into the meat of stuff. This is worth investing in in my opinion if you want to learn to code and it's going to be a fraction of one quarter or one semester of college. Obviously, free content is great if you're motivated, but paid options can often offer better

5:10structure and great exercises and things that can help you move faster. A third option is coding boot camps. I see some pros and cons to these boot camps, whether online or in person, can help really be aware of predatory pricing. I've seen some amazing reasonably priced boot camps, but then I've seen some boot camps that are charging, I don't know, like a year's worth of college, like $10, $15,000 to do it, and I'm not so sure that's worth it. Realize if you come out of a boot camp, you are kind of a commodity because there are a lot of boot camp grads. You're going to need to

5:41do more to stand out. And the secret to that or any of this learning is to build and ship real things. Whichever of these approaches you take to learning, you're going to want to build and ship things into production. That's how you're going to get better at coding. That's how you're going to potentially eventually launch your own product or get a job coding. The fastest growth I ever experienced as a developer was once I got a job coding 40 plus hours a week. I went from learning nights and weekends from books at the library while I worked construction during the day to suddenly having 40 or 50 hours a week of coding

6:14and it was exponential growth for me. But I realized it can be hard to get a job as a junior or an entry-le dev. So learn to code and build your own projects. Realworld projects set you apart from thousands of other beginners. And don't just follow tutorials. Build, launch, and iterate something of your own. Share your work publicly. Document what you're doing and show employers that you can ship and solve problems, not just pass tests. If you're not sure what kind of product to build or you're struggling to come up with SAS ideas that genuinely excite you, I've put together something that might help. It's called the SAS Launchpad, a step-by-step

6:50course that guides you through finding and validating ideas and actually getting your product off the ground. Inside you'll find 28 lessons, over nine hours of content, and everything I've learned about launching a successful SAS business all in one place. If you head over to sasaunchpad.co, you can grab one of the lessons for free. It's a 28minute video I recorded about the DNA of a great SAS business. So the tools, the courses, the guides, they're all out there, a lot of them for free, some for very reasonable amounts of money. So, what's the real difference from someone these days who learns to code versus someone who keeps thinking about or

7:28talking about someday learning to code? The difference is motivation and discipline. It's a lot like fitness. You can subscribe to a gym. You can buy whatever program that you want, but you have to do the reps. You don't need permission. You don't need a degree. You don't need a huge budget. But you do need to get motivated and have some discipline to teach yourself. But if you're willing to put in the time and energy, I say even in 2026, it's still absolutely worth it. If you're building products, you may discover that coding is actually the easier part of building a SAS business. The harder part for many

8:01people is actually finding customers who are willing to pay for what you've built. In this next video, I break down the steps I would take to find your first 10 customers. If you found this helpful, please give this video a thumbs up. And if you're interested in building and launching a SAS business, you should

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