My son treated a simple question with derision.

“Bloke? Just the guy who bet a cool $50 mil that Elon Musk wouldn’t get a lithium battery built in South Australia, and then tweeted he was “never more happy to loose a bet” when Musk did, that’s who. Just the regular Aussie guy who co-founded Atlassian, now a $14.7 billion tech company selling software round the world, that’s who. Why?”

“He wants to give me a coding lesson.”

Which is why, however improbably, I came to find myself at Sydney’s huge CeBIT computer fair sitting next to an old friend, another journalist who’d similarly abandoned maths in year 10, receiving a personal lesson in just how fun and easy it is to program computers.

There’s a big push on for everyone to immerse themselves in the STEM subjects – science, technology, engineering and maths. It’s heresy I know, but after an exciting morning I couldn’t help but feel that a deep understanding of the rules of Latin composition or, perhaps, philosophical logic, could be just as relevant assisting me to unlock the deep secrets of coding.

Or, indeed, just learning how to code for it’s own sake, as Mike pointed out. (Now we’re best buddies I don’t have to follow the usual newspaper rule of calling him by his surname, even if he wouldn’t ever recognise me again).

Cannon-Brookes, or Atlassian, has now rolled out a program in more than 60 schools to do exactly this – put coding on the syllabus.  The enthusiasm that’s greeting it – from both parents and students – is huge. So why aren’t our politicians pushing for coding to be included in the syllabus? After all, it’s a vital skill for our future, it’s simple, and it’s actually even fun.

Your homework: the next time you meet a politician or principal, demand coding lessons are integrated at every level, from primary and beyond.

This was part of the other big revelation from CeBIT. Our world is changing dramatically and the pace of that transformation is beyond our control. Society is now being shaped by the speed of this technological evolution. Choosing to ignore this and stand still is no longer an option.

That’s why even journalists are learning how to code.

There are rewards, too.

Another bloke at CeBIT was Greg Clark, a regular guy from Yeppoon in Queensland who loved surfing and rugby and went to Griffith University. Now, however, after starting up his own cyber security company, he’s become CEO of US firm Symantec (which produces Norton defender and a host of other internet related security products). Those of us who need to put dollar signs on everything will probably feel better knowing that this company’s revenue last year was over US $4 billion. Not bad for a country kid, even if there are currently issues over an internal audit.

Clark’s presentation was on the last day, just after we’d been reassured by government officials and politicians that everything was under control. Without intending to diss anyone, Clark demonstrated just how easily even the most comforting systems can be hacked by those who want to do so.

Simply adding two bars, one black, one white, to a stop sign could, for example, confuse automatic-driving cars with the result that they sped up instead of slowing down.

Even the best organisational processes were vulnerable. An ingenious junior Symantec employee had demonstrated how, by simply wearing glasses with an embedded code, he could even convince that organisation’s security system he was actually a senior manager.

There are, of course, defences against such attacks (many of which Symantec would, no doubt, be prepared to sell you at a very reasonable price), but that’s not the point. The issue is fluidity. We’ve been conditioned to feel comfortable when there are agreed rules, when everything’s written down in black and white, and when our lives are codified. The key to embracing the future is to recognise that those days are over.

We can’t find our way forward without having cyber embedded in the fabric of society all around us. It’s here, now, already a vital part of our lives. It enables us, empowers us, and allows us to live very different lives to those we thought we’d inhabit just a decade ago and this transformation will continue, faster and faster.

Unfortunately, we can’t win this race by simply doing what we used to do.

The urgent requirement is to work out where we need protection and get government to act in our interests.

Why, for example, should I have to use sign-in’s with identities provided by Facebook, Google or Microsoft? Why can’t, for example, our government provide us with an email addresses, such as nicstuart@au. An address that can’t be tracked, or used to shower me with adds, or to gouge me for money? Unfortunately both government and opposition appear bamboozled and afraid to do anything to challenge to unwelcome dominance of the tech titans. These now track out every moment, listen in to all conversations, even suggest our very thoughts.

Symantec gave me a free plastic cover to place over my computer’s camera to stop reverse spying on me. My government – the one that should be protecting me – seems to have given up.