It might be the case that everyone doesn’t have to learn how to program, but I do think that, anymore, it’s the case that people should at least be familiar with the rudiments of programming, or at least scripting. Even if you’re never going to program something from scratch, it’s helpful to understand a little bit about the basic structures underpinning so much of our lives.

For people without any experience in programming, but with some curiosity and a few minutes to spare, Codecademy is a clever website that provides an interactive overview of basic programming concepts. You, too, can learn to say “Hello, world,” teach a website your name, learn about if-then statements, variables, and a few other fundamental ideas.

Each lesson looks the same–you get a short description of an idea or a method, and then an interactive box that lets you try it out immediately:

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