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Ask HN: Anyone a social entrepreneur, i.e. placing social impact above profit?

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Re: Ask HN: Anyone a social entrepreneur, i.e. placing social impact above profit?

#231

Post by peter_d_sherman »

songzme wrote: post #98

2016 - While working as an engineer at Google, I decided to start a free coding bootcamp on the side. I believed I could teach anyone how to become a software engineer so I made a public post asking if anyone is interested in learning how to code and about 30 people showed up at my house. While I was at work in Mountain View, 30 people strangers used my house as a coding bootcamp. 2017 - 30 students were hard to mana…

I think what you're doing is absolutely brilliant, despite the financial difficulties, which are not your fault, because you're a programmer -- not a businessman (don't feel bad, I'm sort of in the same boat, and many users/posters of HN are in that same boat too...)

But the fact that you're helping others is absolutely awesome!

More power to you, and I'm sure if you persist down this path, you'll figure out better ways to handle the financial side of things!

Business is its own learning process -- much like programming was a long time ago!

Anyway, best of luck with your endeavors!

Re: Ask HN: Anyone a social entrepreneur, i.e. placing social impact above profit?

#232

Post by 3pt14159 »

jahewson wrote: post #141
songzme wrote: post #98

2016 - While working as an engineer at Google, I decided to start a free coding bootcamp on the side. I believed I could teach anyone how to become a software engineer so I made a public post asking if anyone is interested in learning how to code and about 30 people showed up at my house. While I was at work in Mountain View, 30 people strangers used my house as a coding bootcamp. 2017 - 30 students were hard to mana…

Please stop throwing good money after bad. You’ve proven that your approach doesn’t work, stop it! Go find yourself a more business-minded partner in this undertaking so that it can be financially sustainable. Noble intentions are great but in the end you will be left with nothing and unable to help anybody.

The only thing here that "doesn't work" is that there aren't enough people like the OP. He's helped dozens of people learn a worthwhile, mind expanding skill that pays well enough to have a family.

Let the man help people. He's got plenty of time to make back money and I highly doubt that after helping all these people that in the end he'll be left with nothing. He already has more than most people.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone a social entrepreneur, i.e. placing social impact above profit?

#233

Post by 3pt14159 »

songzme wrote: post #185
sizzle wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sincerely hope the students that went on to become full time developers paid you back handsomely to pay it forward to future students, otherwise you have nothing to retire with if you sacrificed your life savings. I hope your altruism is rewarded because you are such a good person for doing this. Maybe take donations and create a fund from wealthy tech enthusiasts?

Thanks, but I've come to realize that I'm not altruistic so I want to clarify so you don't leave with the wrong message. I'm using my wealth to build a learning environment and remove obstacles so I can observe what the true barriers to learning are. I essentially created my own lab because it was too much work to convince others to create it for me. So, I'm not the good person that my story seems to convey, just cur…

Well I for one am happy that your deep seated curiosity is so aligned with an altruistic cause that despite my typical trait of believing people when they describe their motivations I still have some doubt about your true motivations. I've taught a number of people software or data science for free. And yes, teaching is its own reward and seeing people that you've taught land gigs as data scientists at companies like Shopify is gratifying, but ultimately it would be dishonest of me to say that my teaching others was purely for selfish reasons. It wasn't. I like helping people and I wish more people did too.

Thanks for doing what you're doing and please keep pushing forward to make the world a better place.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone a social entrepreneur, i.e. placing social impact above profit?

#235

Post by songzme »

gibolt wrote: post #195
songzme wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think students should pay for education, correct. I would enjoy life more if education was free and I'm free to pursue whatever I wanted to learn. It would be even cooler if I was paid to learn so teachers get to experiment with all different ways to teach and they are fully vested into my growth.

Everything has costs. Nothing is free. Public education funding has to come from somewhere so that educators can eat and classrooms can be built and maintained. Financial transactions are not inherently bad. They are one half of value transfer. In your case, a win-win situation.

> Everything has costs. Nothing is free. Public education funding has to come from somewhere so that educators can eat and classrooms can be built and maintained.

If you believe that, then it will be true for you. Alot of things are free. If you plant a potato you can end up with a whole field of potatoes that you can eat forever, for free. And all the potatoes you don't eat decomposes back into the soil and makes the soil healthier.

Nature is fundamentally free and abundant and I can't figure out why our society isn't. Everyone around me seems to conclude that nothing is free though so maybe there's something I see that others don't, or there's something everyone else sees that I don't.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone a social entrepreneur, i.e. placing social impact above profit?

#236

Post by songzme »

dvt wrote: post #206
monoideism wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That's not what I said at all Well, what did you mean by “just as smart”?? Most working class men and women are in fact fairly conscientious. The institutions you mentioned do select for higher IQ. Are you claiming that software development does not require a higher IQ than a typical non-professional job? There’s a lot of psychological research that suggests otherwise. > act, many of my FAANG co-workers were not el…

> For me personally, coming from small town USA, and in my own large extended family, I have significant anecdotal evidence to back this up. You make some fair points, and maybe our life experiences are just vastly different. Having grown up in abject poverty (post-Communist Eastern Europe), migrated to the States when I was 11 with my family, and watched my parents struggle and, to a certain extent, "make it" in Ame…

You have a great story. Out of 100 people in abject poverty in the US, how many do you think ended up like you to "make it"?

Rather than talk about your story and how you were able to "make it", I think it'll be really cool if you found a way to help open up this social mobility so that is is accessible for more people.

That's what I'm trying to do anyways. I've moved quite a few people from 40k / year (whole family) to making 150k / year. You not only learn alot by doing that, you can also create miracles in people's lives.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone a social entrepreneur, i.e. placing social impact above profit?

#237

Post by songzme »

Fiahil wrote: post #158
songzme wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Just wondering, how do you vet the people that apply? No vetting process, it was first come first served. As long as a student kept showing up, I will do everything I can to help. I don't advertise paying students, I offer it after I've seen them make some progress. > I can imagine a lot of people would love to "earn" a free 2k a month and would happily play along doing the bare minimum amount of work required. Thi…

> The way I plan to solve this (next year) could be very controversial, but I believe it based on my experiences so far: No internet until you finish the curriculum, no alcohol, no drugs. Maybe also no meat but that's still up in the air. Sounds like today’s version of a 17th century monastery. Maybe, you should push it further

that is the plan. No phones between 8am - 8pm, like a true bootcamp :)

Re: Ask HN: Anyone a social entrepreneur, i.e. placing social impact above profit?

#238

Post by songzme »

tttp wrote: post #221
songzme wrote: post #98

2016 - While working as an engineer at Google, I decided to start a free coding bootcamp on the side. I believed I could teach anyone how to become a software engineer so I made a public post asking if anyone is interested in learning how to code and about 30 people showed up at my house. While I was at work in Mountain View, 30 people strangers used my house as a coding bootcamp. 2017 - 30 students were hard to mana…

Really nice! "After completing our curriculum, you will gain access to our internal code repository that powers c0d3.com" Out of curiosity, why aren't you opensourcing the code? That would make it easier for your students to showcase their contributions and how they communicate. My personal experience when I was a gsoc admin was that it was hard to get the students stick around after the end of the summer, do you man…

it is open source: https://github.com/garageScript/c0d3-app

It used to be closed source, but it was only because I wasn't confident about the quality of the codebase. Now it is much better.

> My personal experience when I was a gsoc admin was that it was hard to get the students stick around after the end of the summer, do you manage and have some tips to share?

First you should realize that some people just don't really see the point in coding. These people are just going to wander off.

The ones who are dedicated though, its important to spend time to talk to them and make sure your project aligns with their goals. Then they will contribute above and beyond. Our project mission is simple because most students want an engineering job: Working on c0d3.com repository will not only help you gain the skills as a software engineer, it also counts as work experience and makes your resume look amazing.

Does your gsoc project lead to a full time job conversion? 100% of the people I know who did gsoc did it with only one goal in mind: get a full time job.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone a social entrepreneur, i.e. placing social impact above profit?

#239

Post by songzme »

peter_d_sherman wrote: post #231
songzme wrote: post #98

2016 - While working as an engineer at Google, I decided to start a free coding bootcamp on the side. I believed I could teach anyone how to become a software engineer so I made a public post asking if anyone is interested in learning how to code and about 30 people showed up at my house. While I was at work in Mountain View, 30 people strangers used my house as a coding bootcamp. 2017 - 30 students were hard to mana…

I think what you're doing is absolutely brilliant, despite the financial difficulties, which are not your fault, because you're a programmer -- not a businessman (don't feel bad, I'm sort of in the same boat, and many users/posters of HN are in that same boat too...) But the fact that you're helping others is absolutely awesome! More power to you, and I'm sure if you persist down this path, you'll figure out better w…

thank you!

Re: Ask HN: Anyone a social entrepreneur, i.e. placing social impact above profit?

#240

Post by songzme »

searchableguy wrote: post #159
songzme wrote: post #98

2016 - While working as an engineer at Google, I decided to start a free coding bootcamp on the side. I believed I could teach anyone how to become a software engineer so I made a public post asking if anyone is interested in learning how to code and about 30 people showed up at my house. While I was at work in Mountain View, 30 people strangers used my house as a coding bootcamp. 2017 - 30 students were hard to mana…

Thanks for doing this. This is really awesome of you but you need to find some way to subsidize the cost in the long term. Have you got any ideas? I am thinking for-profit divisions such as a hiring agency (you will be able to fix the hiring processes) and training services for interns and juniors of companies, etc. You can sell enterprise subscriptions that companies can pay to give their employees access to trainin…

will reach out and we can bounce ideas :)
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