181–190 of 444 posts
The value of top schools is the professors and instruction. The administration, not so much.
Perhaps the startup should be in how to automate and standardize university administration so that the majority of tuition goes to the educators.
- https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/septoct-2011/administ...
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Learning to program is more like an old fashioned trade than a profession. I don't mean that in a derogatory way. I mean that what should be happening is apprenticeships. If "industry is crying out for more people", then it should be investing in that in the same way it does in every other part of the supply chain. They should be hiring and training programmers, not externalizing their costs.
The way apprenticeships traditionally worked is that the apprentice was bound to the master for a certain number of years, and his parents also often had to pay to have him taken on. The tension between needing trained labour, but not wanting your trained labour to walk out the door and seek employment elsewhere (literal meaning of 'journeyman') was resolved firstly by extremely severe constraints on the apprentice a…
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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 heal…
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…
Just because it’s more lucrative to rip people off doesn’t mean it doesn’t make financial sense to run a good code bootcamp. That’s like saying it doesn’t make sense to work because it’s more lucrative to steal or live off welfare. But sure, it’s a common problem in a market economy. Presumably issues of information asymmetry should be alleviated in the days of the internet.
What is sad to me looking from the outside it is that it didn’t have to be that way. Most of negative reviews seem to boil down to too many students, not enough support, not professional enough course management. Symptoms of growing pains. But why Lambda School had to grow that much that fast? It didn’t. It shouldn’t. It was at the expense of their students. Lambda School seemed a great idea from the start, revolutio…
Perhaps their success rate has gone down, but their absolute successes have grown enough for them to accept it. Perhaps they should add some more expensive tiers for better student support.
Just going to throw this out there... The value of top schools is the professors and instruction. The administration, not so much. Perhaps the startup should be in how to automate and standardize university administration so that the majority of tuition goes to the educators. - https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/septoct-2011/administ...
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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!
network effect, a roadmap, peers, milestones set for me so i don't waste time, and an institution that i can put on a resume. most importantly free up front. i'm a dropout with no savings, on-and-off homeless for the past few years. i've been playing with tech since i was a kid but not in any capacity that looks professional. the pandemic has ironically given me stability and opportunity to try and get my foot in the…
I was in a similar situation about ten years ago, hitting bottom and roughing it. Being a stubborn mule of sorts, I kept trying, learning, went through countless jobs in different fields; all the while, I pursued the joy of programming. Eventually, a side project I was doing for fun (and as a learning experience) became the foot in the door, as proof of my abilities.
In my case, much of it was luck - but as they say, you make your own luck too. And the rest was mostly just "showing up" and "being there".
> i've been playing with tech since i was a kid
I believe this is the essence and heart of becoming a software developer, and you got it!
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Lambda School pushes "income sharing agreements" where once you're paid over $50k you pay back 17% of your income until you've paid back $30k. Depending on your opinion, it's either a brilliant investment in students, aligning the interests of the school and the students - or it's a loan by a slightly different name, fooling the naive into overpaying for instruction from teachers who barely make minimum wage.
In theory the ISA should incentivize the bootcamp to work hard on the student's behalf. If they don't get high-paying jobs, the bootcamp doesn't get paid back. From what I've read though, they actually bundle the ISAs and sell them off to investors--just like the mortgage-backed securities that led to the 2008 financial crisis. So the bootcamp's real incentive would be to generate as many ISAs to sell as possible, no…
Edit: Found my own. Oof.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2...
Not sure what changed in lambda school, but it's probably not a good year to do any boot camps period. My alma matter, insight data sciences program, folded last week. Laid off most staff. Grateful for their training, but not surprised that model couldn't survive this year. At the same time I'm hearing offers are starting to skyrocket for some specialists! Let's see how things evolve in 2021!
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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.
> indirectly by preventing competitors who aren't looking for an exit from existing. This is huge, and definitely hurts in the short term, but could it actually be good in the long term? Let's say the break-even price for Service A is $x/mo/user. Nobody really knows the technical problems underlying A, but startups #1-3 get venture funding and start offering Service A for .75x, for a couple years each, burning a few…