Skillsoft Buys Codecademy for $525M • Hacker News Board

Re: Skillsoft Buys Codecademy for $525M

#21

Post by 300bps » Wed, Dec 22, 2021, 5:40 PM UTC

bredren wrote: post #8

wara23arish wrote: post #5

First time I ever programmed was using Codecademy around 2013. I was always an average student in school. Never had the motivation/curiosity to study since I felt it was all pointless. Never had any programming/computer classes in school. I completed the python course that was available at the time that eventually guides you to build your own version of battleship with 2 players. It was an eye-opening experience for…

Thanks for sharing this. Do you still have your code for your battleship game? All of my earliest programming projects have been lost to time.

One of my few regrets is leaving old computers/disks at my parents house when I moved out. I didn’t value them at all at the time - they were old crappy computers.

So my Commodore 64 and 128 and all the software I spent my childhood writing were thrown away. I had a full BBS program that I wrote when I was 14 along with a half dozen BBS games. Would love to see that code!

Re: Skillsoft Buys Codecademy for $525M

#22

Post by 2arrs2ells » Wed, Dec 22, 2021, 5:41 PM UTC

zds wrote: post #13

Co-Founder and CEO here. We started Codecademy and launched on HN 10 years ago. I'm so thankful to this community for helping us to get started and to see up the momentum! We're committed to making sure that the product stays as great as the one you've used for years (and gets even better!).

Congratulations, Zach! Codecademy was a huge inspiration for me and a whole generation of edtech founders. It’s been amazing watching the company transition from a wildly viral consumer company to an enterprise powerhouse.

Re: Skillsoft Buys Codecademy for $525M

#23

Post by oschvr » Wed, Dec 22, 2021, 5:42 PM UTC

I learnt to program using codecademy !

Re: Skillsoft Buys Codecademy for $525M

#24

Post by maverick2007 » Wed, Dec 22, 2021, 5:49 PM UTC

zds wrote: post #13

Co-Founder and CEO here. We started Codecademy and launched on HN 10 years ago. I'm so thankful to this community for helping us to get started and to see up the momentum! We're committed to making sure that the product stays as great as the one you've used for years (and gets even better!).

Congrats Zach! I owe you a lot. I started using Codecademy in 2011 or 2012 when I was in high school and it was one of the main tools I used to teach myself programming. Fell in love with the hobby/profession and it's what I'm doing (and still love doing) 10 years later!

Re: Skillsoft Buys Codecademy for $525M

#25

Post by chux52 » Wed, Dec 22, 2021, 5:52 PM UTC

Along with others I joined Codecademy shortly after launch after seeing it on HN (2012). My coding journey started much earlier, having no direction and trying to learn from one of those giant Visual Basic books I talked my parents into buying from a bookstore in the mall in the 90's. Went to college (early 00's) with hopes of learning there, but I was too far behind and not really interested in the focus, so switched to a business degree. Graduated and started work as an Accountant and hated the repetitiveness, so picked up some VBA and Access.

Real breakthrough for me was the Codecademy Python class and the benefits of the short form format. Get frustrated, take a break and come back fresh the next day or two.

That along with seeing Wes McKinney's Intro to Pandas talk around the same time ('13?) changed my career.

Re: Skillsoft Buys Codecademy for $525M

#26

Post by xboxnolifes » Wed, Dec 22, 2021, 5:53 PM UTC

teh_klev wrote: post #15

AlwaysRock wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100%. I met an AWS architect who told me his story of learning to code. He was a cab driver who took a software executive home one night and on the drive asked the guy what he did. He said he ran software teams/products and the taxi driver got some advice on how to move industries. The executive said check out a coding bootcamp. The taxi driver did, saw the cost, and decided he would learn on his own. He basically pu…

> Obviously this individual was special and most people wouldnt be able to teach themselves how to code entirely on their own I'd disagree. Sure online learning tools such as CodeAcademy and free videos on YouTube are useful and can provide a great leg up. But I know quite a few folks who pivoted their careers from non-programming jobs back in the 90's and none of these learning aids were available. We just used book…

> I don't think it takes a "special individual", it just takes a bit of willpower and attention.

In my mind this is a statement that contradicts itself. Having the prerequisite willpower and attention is the special attribute.

Re: Skillsoft Buys Codecademy for $525M

#27

Post by datavirtue » Wed, Dec 22, 2021, 5:58 PM UTC

300bps wrote: post #21

bredren wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for sharing this. Do you still have your code for your battleship game? All of my earliest programming projects have been lost to time.

One of my few regrets is leaving old computers/disks at my parents house when I moved out. I didn’t value them at all at the time - they were old crappy computers. So my Commodore 64 and 128 and all the software I spent my childhood writing were thrown away. I had a full BBS program that I wrote when I was 14 along with a half dozen BBS games. Would love to see that code!

I lost all my youth code to a monkey virus (nasty boot sector propegator that someone placed on a computer in the college where my mom was studying nursing). Before I knew what was going on it had spread to every floppy and hard drive that I had and had destroyed all the data. Three years of work gone. At that age it felt like most of my life had evaporated.

It was almost ten years before I started building serious personal projects again.

Re: Skillsoft Buys Codecademy for $525M

#28

Post by datavirtue » Wed, Dec 22, 2021, 6:05 PM UTC

teh_klev wrote: post #15

AlwaysRock wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100%. I met an AWS architect who told me his story of learning to code. He was a cab driver who took a software executive home one night and on the drive asked the guy what he did. He said he ran software teams/products and the taxi driver got some advice on how to move industries. The executive said check out a coding bootcamp. The taxi driver did, saw the cost, and decided he would learn on his own. He basically pu…

> Obviously this individual was special and most people wouldnt be able to teach themselves how to code entirely on their own I'd disagree. Sure online learning tools such as CodeAcademy and free videos on YouTube are useful and can provide a great leg up. But I know quite a few folks who pivoted their careers from non-programming jobs back in the 90's and none of these learning aids were available. We just used book…

For people without mentors or exposure to the craft, they often have no idea why or where to start. They don't even know enough to select a book to start with. Add to that the immense complexity they face just to get python or .net working.

When I started all I had to do was turn on the computer (booted to a BASIC interpreter), type a few lines, and hit F2.

Re: Skillsoft Buys Codecademy for $525M

#29

Post by rmbyrro » Wed, Dec 22, 2021, 6:11 PM UTC

hobofan wrote: post #14

I'm glad for all the people in this thread, for whom Codecademy worked, but I strongly suspect it worked for them because of their drive, and not because of the quality of Codecademy. ~1 year ago I pointed some friends that wanted to learn Python towards Codecademy (because it's just the most prominent example of it's kind of platform). Just out of curiosity, I looked over their shoulders, and I'm glad I did. From wh…

I was baffle the first time I realised differentiating a variable from string was a thing for beginners, but it's true, a lot struggle with it at start...

Re: Skillsoft Buys Codecademy for $525M

#30

Post by NickC25 » Wed, Dec 22, 2021, 6:13 PM UTC

zds wrote: post #13

Co-Founder and CEO here. We started Codecademy and launched on HN 10 years ago. I'm so thankful to this community for helping us to get started and to see up the momentum! We're committed to making sure that the product stays as great as the one you've used for years (and gets even better!).

Hi Zach, I owe a great deal of thanks to you and the rest of the Codecademy team for providing me (and millions of others) with the tools to make a career transition. Hope this is just the beginning, can't wait to see what's next!

(Also, great to see someone from my high school class doing huge things. Well done!)