re: How important is it going to be for a kid born in 2018 to learn coding?

I would say it's more important to know how to solve the problems and the approaches for that than it is to know a specific language and be a "coder". To me, a coder is someone that merely takes instructions on how to solve a problem or implement a feature and only translates it into code. It's a different mindset to be the one that actually solves the problem and understands the how and why the system works together. Languages are interchangeable, I am working in a language right now that I didn't know only a year ago. The language is only a tool.

But even if they're not a programmer for a living, knowing the basics is valuable. Like being able to code an algorithm to calculate something for your job could be valuable and save you a lot of time.