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Launch HN: Lambda School (YC S17) – CS education that's free until you get a job

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Re: Launch HN: Lambda School (YC S17) – CS education that's free until you get a job

#271

Post by heedlessly »

MarkMc wrote: post #187
dfabulich wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A studio apartment in Oakland is $1,500 a month. There are already a bunch of great free resources to learn to code, including Codecademy, Coursera, Khan Academy, MIT OpenCourseware, and freeCodeCamp. Right now, the people who need to learn to code need room and board, not yet another free coding school.

The difference is that with Khan Academy, Coursera etc. you need self discipline. With Lambda you have a coach who expects you to be at your computer at 9am every weekday, and who has a strong financial incentive to ensure you learn. Plus in time a Lambda qualification may become more respected by employers than a Coursera degree.

LOL keyword may

Udacity's full stack developer nano degree was co-created by Amazon, Google, GitHub, and ATT. Lambda is light years behind.

Re: Launch HN: Lambda School (YC S17) – CS education that's free until you get a job

#272

Post by heedlessly »

MarkMc wrote: post #234
pw wrote: post #231

'austenallred is a cool individual, and this seems like it could be a particularly good take on the code school model, but I always wonder if programs like this help on the margin. That is, do they help people succeed (i.e. get a job in software) who otherwise wouldn't, or do they just accelerate the success of those who would, one way or another, eventually succeeded regardless of their participation in the program?…

> demand far outstrips supply, so they can be extremely picky about who they accept and only accept individuals who are destined to succeed The same criticism has been applied to top-tier universities such as Harvard: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/who-needs-harvard/

Don't use Harvard as a parallel in your argument with Lambda. It just comes off very silly.

Not too mention that the Harvard student body typically come from parents with a disproportionate amount of wealth relative to the general population. Their parents were alumni/donors or influential in some type of way. Not to mention, they could afford ACT/SAT tutors for their sons/daughters.

So I advise everyone in this thread to to take what you just said with a grain of salt. This was a false equivalency.

Re: Launch HN: Lambda School (YC S17) – CS education that's free until you get a job

#273

Post by austenallred »

hysan wrote: post #269
austenallred wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, style for the actual class: We start the day out with a code challenge, then move into a mini lecture (a few students with one instructor) and a mini project you'll work on with a pair programming partner. Then another short lecture and you'll begin working on your main project. If you're ever stuck you jump onto our #help channel on Slack and there's instantly someone available to help out. Chances are they've s…

Thanks for getting back to me. It sounds a bit geared towards people who have enough experience to know what to ask, so I'm not sure if this is something I would recommend to someone coming from a completely different field. Would that be an accurate assessment of the learning style? Also, I'm still unsure about what tools will be used as part of the lectures. If it's really just screencasting + chat, I can't believe…

It's not a screencast, it's a video conference. We use Zoom.us. So it's a multi way conversation, just like any classroom would be.

Would be curious to know what disappointed you in the archive videos. I have a guess, but that's just my assumption.

Re: Launch HN: Lambda School (YC S17) – CS education that's free until you get a job

#274

Post by austenallred »

j_s wrote: post #241

Austen, this is going a bit meta but why launch at ~4pm Eastern time instead of 8am? The post has done pretty well anyway - glad to see you hitting the big-time!

When you launch in YC you do so in coordination with the HN team. WE weren't scheduled for today, but another company was unresponsive so we stole the (late) spot.
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