Instagram’s founder, a marketer who learned to code at night
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Re: Instagram’s founder, a marketer who learned to code at night
#2This just goes to show that the most critical ingredient to success is determination and focus, not any specific training.
If you are committed to a goal, picking up any specific hands-on skills (coding included) is just the matter of sticking to it.
Something to keep in mind when hiring.
Re: Instagram’s founder, a marketer who learned to code at night
#3Not entirely true though. He's been coding for a long time. He studied management science and engineering. It's not as if he wasn't technical before he started with instagram.
Re: Instagram’s founder, a marketer who learned to code at night
#4From the article:
Unlike Mark Zuckerberg, the man responsible for acquiring the popular photo sharing app for $1 billion, Systrom received no formal engineering training.
From Systrom's bio on Instagram:
Kevin graduated from Stanford University in 2006 with a BS in Management Science & Engineering—he got his first taste of the startup world when he was an intern at Odeo that later became Twitter. He spent two years at Google—the first of which was working on Gmail, Google Reader, and other products...
Gotta love the spin.
Re: Instagram’s founder, a marketer who learned to code at night
#5This just goes to show that the most critical ingredient to success is determination and focus, not any specific training. If you are committed to a goal, picking up any specific hands-on skills (coding included) is just the matter of sticking to it. Something to keep in mind when hiring.
"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education alone will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan Press On, has solved and will always solve the problems of the human race."
Calvin Coolidge
"If you want to set off and go develop some grand new thing, you don't need millions of dollars of capitalization. You need enough pizza and Diet Coke to stick in your refrigerator, a cheap PC to work on and the dedication to go through with it."
John Carmack
Re: Instagram’s founder, a marketer who learned to code at night
#6Not entirely true though. He's been coding for a long time. He studied management science and engineering. It's not as if he wasn't technical before he started with instagram.
Does the degree title refer to the "science and engineering of management" or "management, science and engineering" or "engineering and the science of management"? My limited reading indicates the first, but can anyone confirm?
Re: Instagram’s founder, a marketer who learned to code at night
#7From the article: Unlike Mark Zuckerberg, the man responsible for acquiring the popular photo sharing app for $1 billion, Systrom received no formal engineering training. From Systrom's bio on Instagram: Kevin graduated from Stanford University in 2006 with a BS in Management Science & Engineering—he got his first taste of the startup world when he was an intern at Odeo that later became Twitter. He spent two years a…
I believe he was working as a Product Marketing Manager on Gmail and Google Reader, not an engineer.
Re: Instagram’s founder, a marketer who learned to code at night
#8From the article: Unlike Mark Zuckerberg, the man responsible for acquiring the popular photo sharing app for $1 billion, Systrom received no formal engineering training. From Systrom's bio on Instagram: Kevin graduated from Stanford University in 2006 with a BS in Management Science & Engineering—he got his first taste of the startup world when he was an intern at Odeo that later became Twitter. He spent two years a…
Spin aside. His story would be really inspiring for folks i have met who think that for one to learn how to program, they need to go to Uni and apply for a cs degree which is bullshit.
Re: Instagram’s founder, a marketer who learned to code at night
#9Not entirely true though. He's been coding for a long time. He studied management science and engineering. It's not as if he wasn't technical before he started with instagram.
Does the degree title refer to the "science and engineering of management" or "management, science and engineering" or "engineering and the science of management"? My limited reading indicates the first, but can anyone confirm?
Re: Instagram’s founder, a marketer who learned to code at night
#10From the article: Unlike Mark Zuckerberg, the man responsible for acquiring the popular photo sharing app for $1 billion, Systrom received no formal engineering training. From Systrom's bio on Instagram: Kevin graduated from Stanford University in 2006 with a BS in Management Science & Engineering—he got his first taste of the startup world when he was an intern at Odeo that later became Twitter. He spent two years a…
Spin aside. His story would be really inspiring for folks i have met who think that for one to learn how to program, they need to go to Uni and apply for a cs degree which is bullshit.
It is bullshit, I'm currently learning to program by following the excellent CS106A paper at Stanford, free on iTunesU. In the current online climate you can learn to code without trying to figure out how to pay a massive student loan back when you're done.
What bugged me about the spin was the comment about Systrom receiving no formal training, unlike Zuck. Zuck built Facebook with next none of the "formal training" he was supposedly getting during his short stint at Harvard. Systrom actually graduated and then went on to be exposed to some pretty big name companies in the tech world.
Good on him though, and yes, inspiring stuff.