"Learn to Code" is an expression used to mock journalists who were laid off from their jobs, encouraging them to learn software development as an alternate career path. The phrase was widely posted on Twitter following the announcement of layoffs at BuzzFeed and The Huffington Post in late January 2019.
Origin
On February 10th, 2014, BuzzFeed News[8] published a quiz titled "Should You Learn to Code?," which provided links to articles recommending coding for people with various interests or professions.
Several months later, in April 2014, in response to a comment by Mark Zuckerberg about shifts in energy use that has led to many coal mines being closed and coal miners behind laid off, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg at the Future of Energy Summit said, "You’re not going to teach a coal miner to code. Mark Zuckerberg says you teach them [people] to code and everything will be great."[9]
Over the next year, other media outlets published pieces on coal miners learning to code. On November 18th, 2015, Wired published, "Can You Teach a Coal Miner to Code?" The article, which took issue with Bloomberg's assertion, focused on several coal miners who were, in fact, learning to code.[10]
On January 24th, 2019, Jalopnik editor-in-chief Patrick George tweeted[1] he believed in a "special, dedicated section of Hell" for people with anime profile pictures who tweet "learn to code" to journalists who had been laid off (shown below). Within 24 hours, the tweet gained over 1,300 likes and 260 retweets. The tweet was posted shortly after the announcements that BuzzFeed laid of 15% of its staff and The Huffington Post had eliminated its Opinion and Healthcare editorial sections.
