11–20 of 35 posts
Edit: downvotes, so .. it's the only thing I've not personally used in his list, I've been using nix environments for over 20 years and never got beyond :q! (or whatever it is). It seems the author considers it an important tool for being an accomplished web-designer - enough to have it as a prereq - so I'm interested in the OP's reasoning.
What exactly do you mean by the term "Unicorns"? In my mind, rare and mythic creatures (and their human analogs) cannot be trained into existence. Sure you can take a group of people and show them how to do something, but the result would be closer to a squad of foot-soldiers than a herd of Unicorns.
@OP: My suggestion would be to start with something you are really good with and start building a community from there. The "JavascriptIsSexy" blog/curriculum might be an example of an approach like that. What he does really good is combining existing tutorial/services (codecademy, books, etc), spot their weaknesses and offers guidance on how to overcome these towards a more rewarding learning experience. Another suggestion would be to take a look at the various (in-person) coding bootcamps and see what structure they are following.
People have to experience repetitive text editing before realizing why vim would be valuable. They need to copy and paste code and make file backups by hand to get a clue why git would help. They need to try to build a big JavaScript application to appreciate why all the frameworks exist.
Don't rob them of having to experience why all these projects were created and what problems they're trying to solve. Ignite the spark with some fun, playful basic stuff.
In that spirit, I hope you will allow me to explore some questions that might help you narrow down what you are doing. To reiterate what the other poster asked, "What do you mean by Unicorn" and I will tack on, "and why is that the goal?"
You say you want to target "exceptional people". What do you mean by that? If a person is "exceptional", why do they need your help? What gap are you filling?
Finally doing this kind of thing is often difficult and time consuming. What is your motivation for starting? How will you measure your success? How will you sustain your motivation over time?
Now some advice: Like some others, I have started many projects. Some have lasted a weekend. Some have lasted for years. Quite a few projects (even ones that lasted for years) had very few participants other than me. This was OK for me because I enjoyed building stuff. None of my projects (so far) became super popular. That's pretty normal I think. Exceptional things are exceptional by definition. Making sure that you are OK just building stuff because you enjoy building it is a good way to make sure you don't get jaded.
Having said that, if your motivation is driven by having a following, learn something from the lean startup guys. Do the tiniest thing that could possibly work and just go. See if you get any interest at all. Fiddle with the parameters until you start to get some interest. Don't build a whole big website and gamble on the all-or-nothing. Build it and your following together over time and don't engage in too much risk.
I hope the questions I asked will help you narrow your scope and help you find the fastest way to deliver something and start testing the waters. Good luck!
"Unicorn" is a term usually used by experienced developers who think specific job listings are asking for unreasonably broad skill sets. i.e. "I've been doing this job for 15 years and even I can't fill this Jr. Dev role." EDIT: oh god, I just glimpsed a future where asshat recruiters on LinkedIn have co-opted the word "unicorn" and are starting to use it like "rockstar".
Why Vim? Edit: downvotes, so .. it's the only thing I've not personally used in his list, I've been using nix environments for over 20 years and never got beyond :q! (or whatever it is). It seems the author considers it an important tool for being an accomplished web-designer - enough to have it as a prereq - so I'm interested in the OP's reasoning.
I can use Vi / Vim enough to get basic stuff done on a server, but I'll stick with eclipse for doing my main development. Having a reasonably intuitive interface means I can concentrate more on the code and less on trying to remember strange key combinations.