The Trouble with CodeSchool
medium.com
The Trouble with CodeSchool
1–10 of 29 posts
Re: The Trouble with CodeSchool
#2There's always 2 sides to this argument. CS grads will say codeschool grads don't know enough CS fundamentals. On the other hand non-CS grads will say CS grads only know CS theory and don't actually know how to build products.
Re: The Trouble with CodeSchool
#3There's always 2 sides to this argument. CS grads will say codeschool grads don't know enough CS fundamentals. On the other hand non-CS grads will say CS grads only know CS theory and don't actually know how to build products.
So, like many other problems, the solution lies somewhere between two extremes.
Re: The Trouble with CodeSchool
#4The key is balance between theory and craft.
Re: The Trouble with CodeSchool
#5Everyone who has shipped a production site knows that codeschool doesn't have a mission to teach you "programming", so much as a stripper does not want to have sex with you. They are both meant to tease and entice you.
Given the author references a site like codeschool, I wish the author would have provided more direction/books/guides on how to become a programmer through knowing the conepts that he lists so that we could have a productive conversation over content rather than a service/business meant to address a giant market need (skilled workers in the CS field).
I can only speak to the merits of this article, it feels like it is just meant to get a rise out of the CS theory side and the non-CS theory side; which is sad.
Re: The Trouble with CodeSchool
#6> Do you know what a binary tree is? The difference between a merge sort and a quick sort? What the singleton pattern is, and why and when you should use it? If you can’t answer one or all of those questions, then it’s time to start learning the techniques.
A thousand times this, I'd respect a programmer who can do this and a lot more in a single language, rather than FizzBuzz on 10 different languages.
Even though being a polyglot helps (and provides different perspectives to solving problems - OO, functional, etc), a decent level of knowledge needs to be in place for that perspective to resort to anything of use.
Re: The Trouble with CodeSchool
#7There's always 2 sides to this argument. CS grads will say codeschool grads don't know enough CS fundamentals. On the other hand non-CS grads will say CS grads only know CS theory and don't actually know how to build products.
CS theory by itself is useless unless backed by knowledge about building stuff, this is where all that theory comes into practice.
Re: The Trouble with CodeSchool
#8> Do you know what a binary tree is? The difference between a merge sort and a quick sort? What the singleton pattern is, and why and when you should use it? If you can’t answer one or all of those questions, then it’s time to start learning the techniques. A thousand times this, I'd respect a programmer who can do this and a lot more in a single language, rather than FizzBuzz on 10 different languages. Even though b…
Yes this would help for optimizing a giant site, but the author is referencing codeschool...that is like throwing a middle school football player into the NFL. Some things truly don't need that level of CS proficiency now-a-days.
Re: The Trouble with CodeSchool
#9You should really check out CodeHS -- http://codehs.com
It's focused on providing a strong fundamental background to absolute beginners, so they learn not just how to write a program but how to write a good program. We teach good programming style, variable and function naming, commenting your code.
Part of the curriculum is reading other peoples' code and critiquing it. Students learn to think like a programmer, not just follow instructions.
Right now, most of our content is a bit more basic than your recommended path to mastery, but it's all the steps to get you there. You can't underestimate the difficulty of understanding the difference between if and while for a beginner. Or the idea of parameters and return values, things that people with experience often take for granted.
also, feel free to email me if you want to learn more. zach@codehs.com
Re: The Trouble with CodeSchool
#10Everyone who has shipped a production site knows that codeschool doesn't have a mission to teach you "programming", so much as a stripper does not want to have sex with you. They are both meant to tease and entice you. Given the author references a site like codeschool, I wish the author would have provided more direction/books/guides on how to become a programmer through knowing the conepts that he lists so that we…
I agree. I would have liked if the author had provided some ways to learn about these topics.
So then, what is the best website or video series to learn these topics? Wikipedia has a nice list of course, but I'm wondering if anyone here has found a particularly great resource they think their fellow HN members would find valuable?
I wonder somewhat humorously, if CodeSchool created a class to teach these topics, would the author's point be invalidated?