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Fast Crimes at Lambda School

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Re: Fast Crimes at Lambda School

#11

Post by paulpauper »

gatinsama wrote: post #9

The model is broken. Too many people want to learn to code, not everyone can do it well. The only way would be to filter many candidates going in, but the negative press would be huge. So you end up with huge cohorts of people who can't code, and you have to make the money back somehow. Good teachers need to know how to code well, and those are expensive too. And, let's face it, the internet is full of great material…

I think it's worse than not doing it well. It's more like struggling at the basics. The incentives of these camps favor quantity over quality.

Re: Fast Crimes at Lambda School

#12

Post by busterarm »

AppAcademy started with and still does ISAs and has been fairly successful. There have been situations where they've deemed certain participants greater risk and NOT offered them ISAs and asked for upfront payment, but I believe their success has largely been a result of aggressive candidate filtering all the way up to 1/3 of the way through the program after its started.

I have first hand experience with their program, albeit 10 years ago, but I would largely say that almost no one who completed the program with me actually needed it and its benefits are largely a forcing function to get you to build a portfolio in a short amount of time and have a peer group to rely on. Everyone from my cohort is still working in industry today if they want to and all seem to be doing well.

Re: Fast Crimes at Lambda School

#14

Post by dustincoates »

I'm convinced that Lambda School was shady, and I'm not debating that, but some of this seems over the top.

ISAs as indentured servitude? The shadowy negotiating a company's validation "behind closed doors?" (Where else are you supposed to do it.)

The criticism of Lambda School can stand on its own without wading into the extreme hyperbole.

Re: Fast Crimes at Lambda School

#15

Post by goat_whisperer »

gatinsama wrote: post #9

The model is broken. Too many people want to learn to code, not everyone can do it well. The only way would be to filter many candidates going in, but the negative press would be huge. So you end up with huge cohorts of people who can't code, and you have to make the money back somehow. Good teachers need to know how to code well, and those are expensive too. And, let's face it, the internet is full of great material…

That might be true if the company was honest. But this was clearly fraud. So go ahead and blame the victim.

Re: Fast Crimes at Lambda School

#16

Post by CalChris »

gatinsama wrote: post #9

The model is broken. Too many people want to learn to code, not everyone can do it well. The only way would be to filter many candidates going in, but the negative press would be huge. So you end up with huge cohorts of people who can't code, and you have to make the money back somehow. Good teachers need to know how to code well, and those are expensive too. And, let's face it, the internet is full of great material…

  Wizard: Why, anybody can have a brain. Therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in me, I hereby confer upon you the Honorary Degree of T.H.D.

  Scarecrow: “Th.D.”?

  Wizard: Yeah, that’s “Doctor of Thinkology.”
The authority vested in Allred was that he'd been a manager at a payday lending company.

Re: Fast Crimes at Lambda School

#17

Post by gatinsama »

paulpauper wrote: post #10

On the surface, this is another window into the 2010's tech bubble, a period where mediocre people could raise ludicrous money amid a venture capitalist echo chamber fueled by low-interest rates. But what makes this any worse than Juicero, Clinkle, or Humane? Why does this rise to the level of Theranos? It has been a bubble now for 13 years. I disagree here. Maybe it's just the new normal? Comparisons between now the…

In general, running a tech company is harder (more complex) than running other kinds of companies but offers significant rewards if you can do it well.

The new normal (from the invention of the internet on) would be that tech companies are more competitive, pay better, and have higher risk.

Re: Fast Crimes at Lambda School

#18

Post by busterarm »

paulpauper wrote: post #10

On the surface, this is another window into the 2010's tech bubble, a period where mediocre people could raise ludicrous money amid a venture capitalist echo chamber fueled by low-interest rates. But what makes this any worse than Juicero, Clinkle, or Humane? Why does this rise to the level of Theranos? It has been a bubble now for 13 years. I disagree here. Maybe it's just the new normal? Comparisons between now the…

People really forget what it was truly like in the 90s. If you could breathe and knew how to turn a computer on, you could get a job in tech. The hiring was that desperate and that easy. The fundraising was that easy too. Everyone just assumed that you even knew what a computer was that you could figure the rest out.

That all changed with the Russian ruble crisis, which hit finance first late in '98 and then took another year for its effects to start hitting the tech industry hard. By 2001 the game was up and it really took until the 2010s to turn around.

Actually in the late 00s and early 2010s it was actually really gross and sort of like crypto. I remember a lot of smooth talking dudes around NY who were raising all kinds of VC money and doing _nothing_ with it but finding shady ways to spend it on themselves/drugs. The money was free and the accountability was absent. That era really didn't last more than about 3-5 years.

Re: Fast Crimes at Lambda School

#19

Post by gatinsama »

goat_whisperer wrote: post #15
gatinsama wrote: post #9

The model is broken. Too many people want to learn to code, not everyone can do it well. The only way would be to filter many candidates going in, but the negative press would be huge. So you end up with huge cohorts of people who can't code, and you have to make the money back somehow. Good teachers need to know how to code well, and those are expensive too. And, let's face it, the internet is full of great material…

That might be true if the company was honest. But this was clearly fraud. So go ahead and blame the victim.

In fact, I am blaming the company from the very start, since they are the ones who promised something they could never deliver.

Re: Fast Crimes at Lambda School

#20

Post by DetroitThrow »

forgot_user1234 wrote: post #13

I have been through lambda. It was the force of nature that turned my life on the right path. It was the best decision I ever made This wouldn’t have been possible without Austen.

I'm glad to hear that it was a positive experience for you! Do you think you know what % of your peers ended up working in tech off the top of your head?
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