Coding Literacy and Opening Paths Into Technology

GitHub researcher Chrissie Brodigan moderates a conversation with Susan Mernit of Hack the Hood, Laura Weidman Powers of CODE2040 and Reshma Saujani of Girls Who Code. The discussion was originally published in 2014, although this YouTube upload appeared later. [Source: a16z](https://a16z.com/podcast/a16z-podcast-if-coding-is-the-new-literacy-how-can-more-people-code/).

Brodigan asks what coding literacy means. Mernit defines it broadly: not mastery of a single language, but enough understanding of tools such as HTML, CSS and scripting to shape digital environments.

Powers adds that literacy includes understanding the language of technology even for people who do not become programmers. Saujani sees access to technical skills as a way to expand economic opportunity for girls and their families.

Mernit describes years in product development, connecting engineering, business and user experience. After moving to Oakland, she saw neighbors excluded from nearby tech opportunities because they lacked relevant classes, contacts and knowledge of career paths.

For Powers, CODE2040’s work connects access to technology jobs with economic development in Black and Latino communities. She sees engineering skills as valuable, but the broader purpose is to address exclusion and opportunity.

Saujani recalls her own fear of mathematics and science and difficulty speaking with technical people. Seeing a gender divide motivated her to build opportunities for girls to learn and participate.

Asked who helped them begin, Powers recalls a college dean’s message not to accept “no” as the end of a possibility. She connects that lesson to the persistence required to start an organization.

Saujani credits early supporters who invested in an unproven idea. She says Girls Who Code grew from 20 participants in 2012 to about 3,000 at the time of the conversation, attributing the growth in part to people willing to help.

Mernit says she had valued colleagues but did not feel she had a true mentor in technology. As a woman and non-engineer executive, she often had to fight for the authority her role required; she argues for more authentic mentorship.

On confidence, Powers describes a narrow line between confidence and fear. Support from colleagues and peers helps, but leaders still make decisions under uncertainty, especially when working in an emerging field.

Mernit focuses on outcomes and manageable risks. She says an organization can make mistakes and iterate, while trying to avoid errors that would end the program altogether.

Saujani emphasizes accepting failure. Learning to code is frustrating, particularly when someone expects to get everything right; discovering that errors can be repaired can also build confidence to take risks elsewhere.

Powers stresses the role of community: taking a chance is harder when a person has no safety net, whether financial, familial or social. A supportive peer group can make experimentation feel possible.

Mernit describes helping young people see that their website-building work belongs on a continuum with more advanced technical work. Repeated practice and encounters with working professionals can counter the belief that they do not belong.

Brodigan gives a Git and GitHub example: a merge conflict can intimidate a newcomer to open source. Instead of avoiding it, Patchwork guides learners through creating and resolving a conflict.

The organizations build confidence through practice. Saujani describes giving students public-speaking opportunities and chances to present technical work to industry leaders before entering classrooms or workplaces where they may be underrepresented.

Hack the Hood teaches teamwork through agile and scrum practices. Mernit says students learn accountability, check in on their work and ask teammates or a scrum master for help.

At CODE2040, industry mentors and workshops signal that students are welcome. The program also teaches practical skills, such as asking an internship manager what successful performance looks like instead of relying on assumptions.

Powers argues companies must deliberately create inclusive cultures instead of assuming every newcomer can find their own way. Daily choices, policies and social practices all influence whether people feel welcome.

Saujani calls for explicit goals and diverse voices in hiring and leadership. Mernit agrees that access must broaden but warns that simply sending more people to elite schools misses talented people facing barriers such as childcare and inflexible schedules.

Asked for three wishes, Mernit names childcare for young parents, more relevant community-college certificates and committed mentors who connect students to further opportunities.

Powers wants to broaden the pipeline into internships and jobs, including stronger relationships with historically Black colleges, state schools and community colleges. Referral-based hiring can reproduce narrow social networks unless companies actively widen them.

Saujani wants students to retain their confidence, hear leaders speak honestly about their own struggles and gain actual employment opportunities. She worries that programs will be treated as charity rather than a source of talent.

She argues that broader access matters because people with different experiences build different products. The speakers close by emphasizing multiple entry points into technology, including for people whose backgrounds do not follow a conventional engineering path.