Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Lambda School lays off 65 employees

lambdaschool.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 275 posts

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#131

Post by pmiller2 »

jurassic wrote: post #79
mxschumacher wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if you have a STEM degree, what value can you derive from short introductory classes on linear algebra, Python and relational databases? Countless truly excellent and free/cheap resources on these topics exist and you don't have to give a way a significant percentage of your yearly salary.

I think the value is similar to the value of a personal trainer. There's no rocket science involved in maintaining fitness, but many people find value in the added accountability and planning support.

Exactly. Some people need a structured environment to get that kind of work done at a decent pace. It also helps to have feedback from a teacher, just like a personal trainer helps you with form.

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#132

Post by malwarebytess »

catillac wrote: post #45
wbronitsky wrote: post #32

The levels of inhumanity and doublespeak in here are staggering. This post attempts to euphemize 65 people losing their incomes, and probably healthcare, to the point that it reads almost as farce. Not to mention what the impact will be on those remaining, students and staff alike. "...they believe it's impossible to make this model work. We strongly disagree." This is wildly insensitive to those involved. I find it…

I get what you’re saying here, but think you’re being a little too harsh. I’m not sure what else to call a reduction in force for PR purposes, I don’t imaging just saying “fired 65 people” is productive. In this comment: “ "For employers looking to hire senior product, engineering, design, community management, or instructional staff, we'll be sharing a list of interested staff looking for their next opportunity on s…

I think the critique is for the corporate need to propagandize every act such that it paints all decisions, and by extension the leadership, in the best way possible. It's revolting anti-truth.

Marketing and propaganda are among the most disgusting inventions of human-kind.

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#133

Post by [deleted] »

SantalBlush wrote: post #108
breck wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Can someone explain how you can train Data Scientists in 6 months? Doesn't it ring alarm bells that society attempts to herd 100% of students through 4 year programs? That sounds far from optimal, no? It seems highly likely to me that if you get someone who excels on the steep parts of learning curves, 6 months studying the right things would be just as effective (if not more) than 4 years doing mostly busy work. >…

>Doesn't it ring alarm bells that society attempts to herd 100% of students through 4 year programs? That sounds far from optimal, no? Society doesn't attempt to herd anywhere near 100% of students through 4-year programs; you just made that up.

[deleted]

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#134

Post by joshxyz »

You know I like how it's a fast paced learning track that's better than 4 year degrees - no argument on that if.

But this Austin Allred guy is one sketchy motherfucker.

And seeing PG not reacting about the shitty reviews LambdaSchool is getting is the most hypocrytic thing I've seen at all.

Aged like fucking milk.

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#135

Post by andrew_ »

fridif wrote: post #88
andrew_ wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

leetcode/hackerrank is the worst thing to happen to tech interviews this decade.

Explain your reasoning, and I will explain mine. While some of the leetcode questions have tedious edge cases and ambiguous logic, there is no doubt in my mind that lists, trees, arrays, queues, maps, graphs, sorting, binary searching, and memoization are crucial for being an amazing programmer

If you truly believe that the measure of amazing programmer is churning out bullshit exercises on a timed call, I can only state that I'm thankful we don't work together. It's incredibly audacious gate-keeping and I'd dare say, discriminatory. It ignores disabilities, social adjustment conditions, etc that wouldn't impact daily work.

I know too many incredible engineers that don't think in the way that those timed exercises require, and these folks are wildly talented and wildly successful.

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#137

Post by galaxyLogic »

void_mint wrote: post #43
pilingual wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about it makes you say that?

Most code schools (including Lambda School) don't really train students effectively. It's closer to a crash course in a bunch of different topics. Students that graduate often aren't actually able to perform whatever they were supposed to have learned effectively on the job. Worse, to pad hiring stats, lots of code schools also will hire recent grads that cannot find employment as instructors. They technically aren't…

Does it compare to:

https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-postsecond...

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#138

Post by rednerrus »

jurassic wrote: post #79
mxschumacher wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if you have a STEM degree, what value can you derive from short introductory classes on linear algebra, Python and relational databases? Countless truly excellent and free/cheap resources on these topics exist and you don't have to give a way a significant percentage of your yearly salary.

I think the value is similar to the value of a personal trainer. There's no rocket science involved in maintaining fitness, but many people find value in the added accountability and planning support.

If they're good they also have a pipeline to a job for you.

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#139

Post by MattGaiser »

teruakohatu wrote: post #28

Can someone explain how you can train Data Scientists in 6 months? What jobs do these grads walk into? The tech prerequisite is: "You should feel extremely comfortable with how a computer works including: touch-typing, web browsers, search engines, and basic computer programs." The Curriculum: Stats, Linear Algebra AND Data Wrangling: 4 Weeks Modeling: 3 Weeks Data Engineering, Databases, SQL, Productionisation: 3 We…

It isn't as though 4 year degrees teach purely useful information. If you stripped my computer engineering degree to courses that I use for software engineering, it would fit in two semesters. If you tossed out all the non interview required theory, it could fit in one.

Re: Lambda School lays off 65 employees

#140

Post by rednerrus »

908B64B197 wrote: post #47
teruakohatu wrote: post #28

Can someone explain how you can train Data Scientists in 6 months? What jobs do these grads walk into? The tech prerequisite is: "You should feel extremely comfortable with how a computer works including: touch-typing, web browsers, search engines, and basic computer programs." The Curriculum: Stats, Linear Algebra AND Data Wrangling: 4 Weeks Modeling: 3 Weeks Data Engineering, Databases, SQL, Productionisation: 3 We…

It's cramming. Simple as that. Enough buzzword to pass an interview. Unless someone already has a pretty solid degree, it's impossible to learn the fundamentals that quickly. And if they do, they should take grad classes on data science, not go into a bootcamp...

You could learn to be a developer/QA/OPs in 6 months on the job. I don't know enough about data science to make that call.
Post reply on HN