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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

#121

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

soneca wrote: post #75
Tomte wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But why Lambda School had to grow that much that fast? Isn't that obvious? They have investors. It's precisely what Joel writes about in https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/05/12/strategy-letter-i-...

I know the incentives are there to have exponential Silicon Valley hyper growth. But there are also incentives to be a company that still exists and it is big 20 years from now. And there are ethical decisions that could be made despite of the incentives. Even being a YC company, I believe it didn’t have to be that way. Edit: thanks for the link, great article. ”Land grab” is a great term for what I currently think a…

The sad truth is, there probably isn’t a tradeoff here. ITT Tech survived and grew for almost half a century while offering many students a worse experience at a higher price than the worst I’ve ever seen Lambda School accused of.

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

#122

Post by akanet »

arvindamirtaa wrote: post #24
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.

When I spoke to Allred about this, he indicated that he and pg did not have a particularly close relationship. If this is true, it seems likely that pg's vocal patronage is mostly based on the theory, not practice, of Lambda.

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

#123

Post by TeMPOraL »

mxcrossb wrote: post #113
soneca wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know the incentives are there to have exponential Silicon Valley hyper growth. But there are also incentives to be a company that still exists and it is big 20 years from now. And there are ethical decisions that could be made despite of the incentives. Even being a YC company, I believe it didn’t have to be that way. Edit: thanks for the link, great article. ”Land grab” is a great term for what I currently think a…

A lot of these companies are in the “the only reason it’s a good price is we are burning VC money” and “the only reason we have VC money is our promise to grow” zone. Customers can enjoy watching the slow motion train crash.

That's why I consider startups a Faustian bargain. You get easy access to capital, in exchange for your company's soul. And the devil always comes to collect. The problems start where this deal causes collateral damage on the market - harming customers directly, or indirectly by preventing competitors who aren't looking for an exit from existing.

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

#124

Post by Benmcdonald__ »

jacobion wrote: post #78

The thing about efficient markets is that lucrative activities which don't produce much value—borderline scams—can block activity which would be highly wealth creating. For example, there could be a huge untapped retail market for financial derivatives such as interest rate and fx hedges. However, it's very hard to access this market because historically anyone who has started selling such products has pivoted toward…

Same as health care. Without regulations the industry would be full of snake oil. And yet the regulation kill innovation in the industry. Money all devolutes to scam. Look at digital money. Not even HN community can spot the "crypto" scams

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

#125

Post by zimpenfish »

dna_polymerase wrote: post #26
arvindamirtaa wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

As a counterpoint, in 25 years and probably as many jobs, only one or two places have cared about my degree and that was just another red flag on top of the pile of red flags those places already had.

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

#126

Post by rswail »

abdullahkhalids wrote: post #73
codethief wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You only needed $30k to survive for five years in Sweden ?

My friend did his Masters from Finland and said his monthly expenses were about 200-300 Euros in his first year. I think he spent a bit more in subsequent years after getting a part-time job. That's 18000+ euros if extended to 5 years. Don't overestimate living expenses in a 500 year old walkable town with a small university in a --socialist democracy-- country that cares about its citizens.

Actually a democratic socialist form of government, not socialist democracy. There's actually a big difference.

Democratic socialism is not averse to capitalism and understands that the private sector has a role to play.

But it also assumes that government has responsibilities to its citizens that amount to more than a minimal set of rights.

Up until Reagan, the US had similar policies, with the one exception of health care.

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

#127

Post by nemetroid »

codethief wrote: post #48
lawn wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fun fact: $30k is almost exactly how much the Swedish student loan gives you for 5 years of full time study, which I used to pay for everything (housing, food, clothes, computers, books for school etc).

You only needed $30k to survive for five years in Sweden ?

Their numbers are a bit off the mark. You'd get $45k in loans and $20k in grants over five years, so a total of $65k. But yes, as a student it's completely possible to get by on this amount.

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

#128

Post by huntleydavis »

I think the ultimate question is whether it's markedly better on average than what the rest of the market can offer for $30k. Covid has reduced the value of almost all education services that aren't exclusively online, thus has Lambda's perceived reduction in value in line with the average reduction across the industry or is it uniquely bad?

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

#129

Post by zimpenfish »

ruined wrote: post #98
echelon wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

i've done this more than once. nobody cares about a toy i made or its website, even if it looks pretty and i'm proud of it.

This is weird to me because the kind of person who can go away, learn, and make something by themselves seems to be ticking a lot of the boxes software development teams need (even if only at junior level.)

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

#130

Post by rswail »

abdullahkhalids wrote: post #90
sampo wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> socialist democracy In Nordic countries, we don't really like it when Americans call us socialist democracies. We are market economies like everyone else. Here's a take from the Danish prime minister: https://www.vox.com/2015/10/31/9650030/denmark-prime-ministe...

Sorry. But I am Pakistani. From my perspective, if the government is providing free health coverage, subsidized accommodation to students, free education [0], and good public transit, then it is fulfilling the ideals of socialists. However, the label of the actual system might be different, which is totally fair. [0] I think Finland is now charging a small tuition fee, at least for non-EU students.

The ideals of socialism are that the means of production are owned by the community. So it owns all industry as well.

Communism says that there isn't any individual property.

Scandinavian countries have never been socialist.

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