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 Zack! I learned to program at Codecademy and it has played a very important role in my life/career. I'm working as an Engineer in an ed-tech company. This was all enabled by you and your team!
Congratulations to the whole Codecadamey team! Know lots of folks there who have worked very hard and I hope this exit is beneficial to them. I wish them nothing but success (and hope Skillsoft can retain and grow the talent)!
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!).
Welp, I signed up with the service in January of 2012 but I'm done with Codecademy now. When Skillsoft bought Element K, it did not go well for the majority of us there. Not only that, but they were my biggest competitor in sales. So not only was I not impressed with how they treated a company after buying it, but it's almost out of principle that I wouldn't support a company that has been such a barrier to success for me.
I get a feeling that the comments here read like eulogies. Maybe that's just me due to exposure to skillsoft over the years.
Took them as validation anecdotes -- sort of like thank yous to the team. Kind of really like these threads!
That being said, I've now asked a few folks about Skillsoft and they weren't that bullish about it. Kind of just hoping for a good return for the employees at Codecademy who worked hard to get to this stage (an exit).
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! I'm curious, are you a millionaire now? :)
I started my IT career with Skillsoft training for A+ certification nearly 20 years ago.
Good times. Thanks Skillsoft, good luck with the transition Code Academy
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…
Although I still think services like Codeacademy and Exercism are really useful, what you've said describes my main gripe with them, which is that these services are seemingly designed for people who have already maneuvered their way into programming to some extent. Someone who wants to learn programming from scratch probably won't get much out of having a "hello world" exercise thrown at them followed by FizzBuzz. Not only does the value of such exercises not necessarily translate to someone who has yet to fool with computers themselves, but these systems overall fail to educate new programmers on the many things that matter besides language constructs for a particular language. In my opinion, these are tools designed by programmers for programmers. Not that there's anything wrong with that... but not once have I become proficient in a language by doing online code challenges in a REPL; I always learn by doing, as was recently the case for me delving into C++ via an Arduino project. The C++ skills I momentarily learned online didn't stick because FizzBuzz isn't really applicable to anything (obviously I'm kind of oversimplifying things here).
> 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.
I feel like I learned willpower and attention (directed focus towards a goal) by playing online RPG games which required grinding for EXP and leveling.