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Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

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Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#21

Post by echelon »

ruined wrote: post #6

Well, this is disappointing. Lambda was my plan B if i didn't make it into the competitive program i selected.

You can learn everything you need on your own without a degree or bootcamp. All you need is a starter project and an interest. You can Google everything.

Pick an easy language. I recommend Javascript or Python. There's a wealth of learning material and you can use these two languages to build a wide variety of things.

Pick something fun: a simple game, an interactive website, a blog, etc. Make it your objective, and instill in yourself a deep desire to make it. But don't get caught up on making it perfect.

Read a tutorial or two, experiment, and try to apply what you learned to the thing you want to build.

It'll take a lot of time. Whatever time you think it takes, multiply that figure by three. Don't stress out. You can't conceive of all the roadblocks or what you don't know.

If you get stuck, ask questions on Reddit, StackOverflow, Discord, etc. Learning how to ask questions builds your mental model of how this stuff fits together. Eventually you'll be able to answer a lot of your own questions.

Block out an entire weekend and go for it.

Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#23

Post by grenoire »

arvindamirtaa wrote: post #15

I just want to give a quick shout out to 42. They're closed for Covid19 right now. But if you can wait for them to open up, this is a good place to look into - https://www.42.us.org/ or https://www.42.fr/ (if you're in Europe).

42-styled schools also exist, generally loosely affiliated. A friend of mine started CODAM (42 in Amsterdam, essentially; https://www.codam.nl/) around a year ago and has been quite happy so far. I recently started working with him on a couple projects and honestly I can tell the education and the syllabus he got was high quality.

Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#24

Post by arvindamirtaa »

blntechie wrote: post #14

Most open world reviews i.e. non curated ones I have seen for Lambda school have been negative to at best neutral. I believe they have a place in the education market if they do it right. Model is good enough but execution appear to be severely lacking. It’s interesting that pg is a big fan though.

> It’s interesting that pg is a big fan though...

...as an investor.

He may not be intimately familiar with the actual situations of the students from his PoV (mostly throguh conversations with Austen or his team).

But then again, this is far from the first time a negative comment has come out against Lambda. And his position hasn't changed so far. So, there is that.

Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#25

Post by pietrovismara »

rootlocus wrote: post #18
thaumasiotes wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What costs more, $30,000 and 6 months, or $30,000 and 48 months?

I think this is the wrong question. Any commitment to education is an investment. At that point, you should be thinking in terms of ROI.

You can think in terms of ROI only if you have enough resources to dedicate 48 months to study. Otherwise it's just a race against time to become profitable.

That is, to be able to think in terms of ROI is a privilege.

Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#26

Post by dna_polymerase »

arvindamirtaa wrote: post #12
ruined wrote: post #6

Well, this is disappointing. Lambda was my plan B if i didn't make it into the competitive program i selected.

Can you give a little more context on what led you to this decision? What value do you see in Lambda (or any other similar program) that you don't when learning on your own? Is it the network effect? Just curious!

You could ask the same question for any university program. It's the degree that opens doors. HR doesn't care for your EdX or udemy certs.

Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#27

Post by jcelerier »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #11
st1x7 wrote: post #8

People are paying ~$30k for bootcamps? Why not get a degree at that point?

What costs more, $30,000 and 6 months, or $30,000 and 48 months?

You can get a degree for muuuuch less in europe. In france it'd be something like 1k€ at most over your whole post-high-school studies unless you go to specialized art school or something like that.

Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#28

Post by cjrp »

rootlocus wrote: post #18
thaumasiotes wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What costs more, $30,000 and 6 months, or $30,000 and 48 months?

I think this is the wrong question. Any commitment to education is an investment. At that point, you should be thinking in terms of ROI.

If you're using both the degree and the bootcamp to achieve the same goal (e.g. a paying job), then surely being ready for employment sooner is preferable?

Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#29

Post by Cthulhu_ »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #11
st1x7 wrote: post #8

People are paying ~$30k for bootcamps? Why not get a degree at that point?

What costs more, $30,000 and 6 months, or $30,000 and 48 months?

Depends; do you get 48 months worth of education in 6 months? I doubt it. A lot of learning also takes time to process, to settle in.

That said, half my 4 year software engineering education was hands-on, figure-it-out-yourself stuff; a year of internships and a ton of group projects.

Re: Lambda School is the biggest mistake I made this year

#30

Post by arvindamirtaa »

swyx wrote: post #13

there have been a few prominent criticisms of lambda school recently but it is all anecdotal and disorganized. closest in my mind was fulligin's takedown on NYMag ( https://vincentwoo.com/2020/05/19/on-lambda-school/ which found some bad facts but was sensationalized beyond proportion imo, still, make up your own mind) very hard to tell what specific allegations and changes have been made without also needing to ques…

Since you asked for specifics, there is a comment in the original reddit thread where OP talks about a sort of "bait-n-switch" type situation going on in the current cohort where they go into a lot more detail.

For the initiated, it shouldn't be too hard to verify.

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