You Shouldn’t Learn to Program

“When I leave FMOD and start implementing audio, things get hard. Primarily because I don’t fully understand [programming] the engine, and second because I wish I didn’t have to.”

“[I would love to know] ways to empower yourself to take that first jump into creating a tool that would help you out, as oftentimes the mental block of knowing how much upfront time you’ll invest failing to create the tool you want gets in the way of…well, taking that first step.”

“What is the most useful language to learn for a sound designer? C++, Lua, C#, Python?”

“Where can I show value beyond the scope of my role?”

Do these quotes sound at all familiar to you?

I bet they do – I bet you ask yourself these kinds of questions, or ruminate on what you’re not doing that you could be quite a bit.

What You Shouldn’t Be Doing

I write a lot about how to take really great approaches for success in you (or frankly, most any) industry. I also share a considerable amount about my two biggest interests – audio and programming. I do so in a fairly unique way, because I’m not a spectacular sound designer nor a full-time programmer. Instead, for now, I straddle lines and pursue what’s interesting to me.

But I deeply understand how I used to feel – confused, without a roadmap, unsure of what to do, desperate to get hired, feeling like I was way behind while everyone else succeeded, wondering if I was making the right decisions, often hopeless.

When you’re hopeless and needy – you’ll reach for just about any strategy.

Which, consequently, is why plenty of you are here reading this. And now, I’m going to give you a wake up call.

Where you’re sitting, pause for a minute, close your eyes, and seriously ask yourself this question –

Is your end goal to be a full-time sound designer or composer?

I don’t mean “in house” or “freelance” – I mean you just don’t have a side job.

Seriously, think about it… I’ll wait…

Okay – done? Got your gut answer?

If it’s “yes” – then I have great news for you.

You don’t need to learn to program. At all.

I know, I know – it’s a huge shocker coming from me, Mr. “Provide Value/Be Unique”. But, it’s true.

Why You’re Wasting Your Time

Re-read that heading. You are wasting your time.

(Okay – I’ll acquiesce if you’re learning to program because you’re having fun and not trying to get a job)

The only audio-centric people who should spend any decent amount of time learning to program are those who want to be more implementation focused (say, a “Technical Sound Designer”) or a full-time programmer.

Neither of those roles are Sound Designers or Composers.

“But Adam – won’t knowing implementation get me a job?!”

Look – skills are important. The more skilled you are, the more useful you can be. Also the more you have to convince people that you actually can do all of these things you say you can.

(I have that conversation in every interview I’m in)

And the answer to your question isn’t as cut and dry as you think it is. The reason why is because “implementation” is a loaded word – it doesn’t actually mean anything.

Those of you who are outside the industry think that “audio implementation” means something really specific to those of us inside. You think it means something like you’re really good at Wwise and sometimes you program stuff, sometimes you do some sound design.

Sure – but I’ve been in technical roles where I did zero sound design, and technical roles where I was actively encouraged not to spend a lot of my time programming.

So, on the inside, “technical sound designer” is actually really vague and means different things to different studios at different times depending on their needs. I’d elaborate – but teaching you how to position yourself to be a Technical Sound Designer or a full-time programmer is beyond the scope of what I have to say here.

What I can assure you of, though, is if you are only trying to learn programming because you feel like it will be an asset to get you that job where you hang out in a DAW all day making sounds or writing music – you’re definitely doing the wrong thing.

When a job listing is posted for a sound designer role – employers aren’t looking for composers.

When a job listing is posted for an audio programmer role – a sound designer would be woefully inadequate.

Someone looking for a plumber won’t go call up an electrician and ask them to fix a faucet.

Get it?

I know that in interactive media, these disciplines get conflated and confused. I understand that you feel like you have to be amazing at everything.

You don’t. In fact, it will hurt you badly if you try to do that.

I – for example – haven’t ever touched FMOD in a professional setting. I plan to at some point, and there’s a studio I’d be honored to work with who uses FMOD therefore it wouldn’t be a bad idea to learn it.

Not to mention, teaching you all the technical parts of FMOD would be a boon to me.

But I’ve been gainfully employed in games for quite a while without knowing and having used FMOD.

You know what I spend my time on instead of learning FMOD?

Getting better at what I do know. I’ve used Wwise for years, I know Unity pretty well, and I’ve gotten decent at a handful of useful programming languages because these days I enjoy the challenge of programming more than I love sitting in a DAW all day.

(I did it for years – I don’t hate editing audio, but it was time to find a new challenge)

So if you’re looking to be a sound designer or a composer full time – do yourself (and me) a tremendously huge favor with these actions –

If you don’t care at all about programming and wish you didn’t have to learn it – you don’t – so unsubscribe from my email list. Don’t worry, I still love you and I probably love you more for being true to you.
Take the time you save by not reading my stuff, and re-invest it in getting a lot better at your craft

If your craft is music, go make more music and share it. If your craft is designing sounds, go design more and share them.

Go wow some people. If you haven’t done that, you’re not pushing yourself to create and share enough. Instead, you’re probably trying to figure out what skill is best to learn or tactic is best to use to get hired.

That’s not the way it works.

Get so damn amazing that none of us can ignore or deny you, and completely ignore everything else.