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Learning to code at 56

medium.freecodecamp.com

111–120 of 165 posts

Re: Learning to code at 56

#111
post #4

bootcamps - the best way of driving both wages and software quality down

That's a very non-inclusive way of thinking, and it is hard to imagine that it benefits the community as a whole. What if you substituted developers, in this situation, for doctors?

Not really comparable. Becoming a doctor has a knowledge base literally thousands of years old. Web development, 2 decades at best (50 years to cover all of computing), ~5 years at worst. Modern society has tempered a doctor track to take well over a decade (as it should, we're dealing with the human body). Becoming a web developer? 12 weeks according to these bootcamps. They also aren't cramming a "proper" 4 year CS education into that amount of time.

Re: Learning to code at 56

#112
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks a bit like Jeff Daniels in dumb & dumber aged 10 years. Good find though. This is really fishy.

I think you all are misunderstanding the article. It's extremely common on medium articles to use stock photo at the top of your article. This probably also serves as an article thumbnail in article summaries/indexes. The author clearly uses a photo of what is ostensibly themselves as their profile pic. Nothing in the article indicates "this is me." More important: there is little if anything to be gained by this dec…

I know it is extremely common, but one thing is when you write something about (say) biking let's say titled "Biking is good for your soul" and have a nice stock photo of a "generic biker" on a mountain trail, another IMHO is if the title is:

"I’m learning to code at 56. Here’s an epic beat-down of my critical inner self."

and just after the title you put an image of a good looking fiftyish guy looking at the reader straight in the eyes, and right after it you repeat:

"I’m 56 years old and learning to code.".

Maybe it is not "intended" or done in any way in "bad faith", still it does seem like saying, "here I am, at 56, look at me".

Re: Learning to code at 56

#113
post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This REALLY irks me.

So how should we punish him for lying, polluting the net, wasting bandwidth,etc?

>So how should we punish him for lying, polluting the net, wasting bandwidth,etc?

Maybe ;):

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079470/quotes?item=qt0471984

Re: Learning to code at 56

#114
post #87

On one hand, it's warming to hear about someone trying to better themselves. People should never stop learning. On the other, entering a career "to make money" rubs me the wrong way.

Many people come from backgrounds where their access to money was extremely limited. Maybe not this guy. But many people look to new careers such as programming as a way to help themselves and their families have a better life. Those people should not be frowned upon IMO.

Re: Learning to code at 56

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried flux? https://justgetflux.com/ It helps me with the eye strain. Also I am starting to find myself returning to good ole paperback books for reading. Try printing out some code bases when ever you start getting more advanced you can actually learn a lot from studying code.

flux is awesome. i can't use it during the day though, because it puts me to sleep! it works too well.

[deleted]

Re: Learning to code at 56

#116
post #39

At 51, I've noticed there are really two kinds of people at my age... people who are completely beaten, and people who are winning. Once you hit 40 or so, the scope of mortality really hits you. You realize that you've probably already had half your productive life, maybe half a career. You start seeing peers die of "old age" - heart attacks and strokes and stuff. For most, they're beaten, defeated. They decide this…

I've always thought of it this way. There are the people who want to "Be" something (writer, entrepreneur, etc) and those who want to "Have Been" something. The ones who want to have been always seem to be the ones who turn out to be not what they wanted because they've spent all their time thinking about how great it'll have been to be something than actually doing what they should have done to have been something.

Whew. Still with me?

Re: Learning to code at 56

#117
post #47

Well, if it is not an ad, at least is some astroturfing, how come the BIG photo is not that of the actual guy? The image on the article is this one: https://i2.wp.com/tobecomeateacher.org/wp-content/uploads/20... "Stock photo" by Jake Barford: https://unsplash.com/@jakebarford The photo of Mr. Vaughn, (from his "profile"): https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/fit/c/100/100/1*Lu4bKAqf2Sxm...

It's pretty clearly hosted by freecodecamp.com; of course it's something intended to promote them. It's like saying that a post on the Google blog about "getting girls into coding" is an ad for Google.

But it can't be astroturfing, which has a specific meaning about misrepresenting the source of the support.

The stock image is shady, but that's more of a Medium-style-blogpost thing (edit: see below) -- people routinely add stock images in obviously-not-fair-use ways, without permission; the negotiation article used a ton of stills from Mad Men (presumably before they got a nasty letter and took them down).

[1] This one: https://medium.freecodecamp.com/how-not-to-bomb-your-offer-n...

Edit: Didn't check that url -- n/m, you're right, it's something FCC seems to do a lot, not a Medium-thing.

Re: Learning to code at 56

#118
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you all are misunderstanding the article. It's extremely common on medium articles to use stock photo at the top of your article. This probably also serves as an article thumbnail in article summaries/indexes. The author clearly uses a photo of what is ostensibly themselves as their profile pic. Nothing in the article indicates "this is me." More important: there is little if anything to be gained by this dec…

I know it is extremely common, but one thing is when you write something about (say) biking let's say titled "Biking is good for your soul" and have a nice stock photo of a "generic biker" on a mountain trail, another IMHO is if the title is: "I’m learning to code at 56. Here’s an epic beat-down of my critical inner self." and just after the title you put an image of a good looking fiftyish guy looking at the reader…

I took it to be a personification of his Critical Inner Self.

Re: Learning to code at 56

#119
post #99
post #39

At 51, I've noticed there are really two kinds of people at my age... people who are completely beaten, and people who are winning. Once you hit 40 or so, the scope of mortality really hits you. You realize that you've probably already had half your productive life, maybe half a career. You start seeing peers die of "old age" - heart attacks and strokes and stuff. For most, they're beaten, defeated. They decide this…

At 24, I've noticed there are really two kinds of people in the world: those who think there are two kinds of people in the world and those that don't.

Husserl noticed it before you...and before me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Other

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