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Fast Crimes at Lambda School

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Re: Fast Crimes at Lambda School

#161

Post by itronitron »

SuurRae wrote: post #130
itronitron wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious how much Calculus as a prerequisite is a barrier to entry for students. CS as a topic is not hard, but a lot of students are blocked from entry with fairly rigorous Calculus requirements.

I'm sorry, but if you are unable to understand the basics of calculus and discrete math, then you should not be in a Computer Science program (with emphasis on the "science" part). CS isn't just programming - it's the theory of how computers work and math is an integral part of that. Just because you don't use it every day in the job itself doesn't mean that the information is useless.

>> understand the basics of calculus

I think the issue is that many programs expect students to understand 'the basics' of calculus as an academic mathematician understands them, which I would consider to be more suitable as an upper level elective for a CS program.

A fun exercise would be to have graduating CS students take the same calculus exams that were required for admission to the program. I would expect that 10% would score much higher and the other 90% would score much lower.

Re: Fast Crimes at Lambda School

#162

Post by soneca »

I wonder if Paul Graham regrets investing in and defending Austen for such a long time.

I only made a comment long time ago that Lambda School sounded like a good idea to me and I regret how fool I was.

Edit: btw, bitwise, you were right in 2019, despite your response to my comment being downvoted.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19774532

Re: Fast Crimes at Lambda School

#163

Post by bee_rider »

itronitron wrote: post #161
SuurRae wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, but if you are unable to understand the basics of calculus and discrete math, then you should not be in a Computer Science program (with emphasis on the "science" part). CS isn't just programming - it's the theory of how computers work and math is an integral part of that. Just because you don't use it every day in the job itself doesn't mean that the information is useless.

>> understand the basics of calculus I think the issue is that many programs expect students to understand 'the basics' of calculus as an academic mathematician understands them, which I would consider to be more suitable as an upper level elective for a CS program. A fun exercise would be to have graduating CS students take the same calculus exams that were required for admission to the program. I would expect that…

I worked with students in a “intro calculus for humanities” type class for many years (as a sort of undergrad tutoring role, so, it was a while ago, I’m old now). Despite this experience it is pretty shocking to me that there are, like, actually adult people walking around who can’t at least do a derivative.

Spending too long in STEM academics absolutely warps your view of the mathematical skill floor I think.

Re: Fast Crimes at Lambda School

#164

Post by swedonym »

elawler24 wrote: post #121

VC incentives are the real problem here. I was a mentor at another bootcamp and also the founder of a high-skill developer marketplace in 2017. A valuation of $1B for this business is crazy. Investors were simply underwriting students paying for trade school, there's no tangible tech innovation. Like Theranos, WeWork, and FTX - it's the story of a darling founder who has to justify an unrealistic valuation in a froth…

I'm not sure we can solely blame VC incentives here. There are many edtech companies that are doing well with VC funding / incentives (Coursera, Duolingo, Goalsetter to name a few). As far as I know, the majority of these companies have not resorted to predatory practices or actively misleading potential students.

I agree that VCs have an incentive to inject high-octane fuel into the growth engine of a company, but the decision to use that fuel for an ICBM or a Spaceship is ultimately that of the founders.

Re: Fast Crimes at Lambda School

#165

Post by cqqxo4zV46cp »

throwawaymaths wrote: post #133
busterarm wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our cohort was 23. 2 people basically scammed AppAcademy by not finding a job for two years but did find jobs after that and didn't have to pay their ISA. Everyone else did find jobs within about 3 months. All but three have moved into senior roles. Of those three, one prefers just being an IC and two moved into product management. I don't know how things are lately but given sentiment I hear about hiring from bootca…

Took a risk hiring out of App academy once. Guy had gone through hundreds of interviews and just bombed on all of them. I know why, he just sucked at interviews and exudes a Morty's dad kind of vibe. Perfectly fine programmer, it turned out.

Jerry, get a job!

Re: Fast Crimes at Lambda School

#166

Post by 7thpower »

kbigdelysh wrote: post #107

I was one of the coding instructors at Make School which was similar to Lambda School and was bankrupt couple years ago. Our major issue? It was damn hard to find enough students for our school who were talented enough to understand computer science and had enough grit to finish the program and get a job. Why? Because those students were already absorbed by the established traditional universities.

Counter point, I have worked with a company we’ll call “C” and they have been able to build a pipeline of folks who have been incredibly effective (>50).

That being said the program is a bit more than ~3 months and the students go all in, they’re not doing it part time.

The students come from different backgrounds, some have not graduated highschool, and they come hungry for better opportunities. We’ve tried this with a few companies and that was the only one that has been successful.

That being said, I think it has been difficult for them to scale profitably as it is just a lot of work to find the candidates and provide effective instruction.

Re: Fast Crimes at Lambda School

#167

Post by soneca »

bitwize wrote: post #145

I'm reminded of a company I've crossed paths with in the past. It's the same people each time, but when they get found out they tear down the old company and erect a new one with the same business model under a new name. At first it was called Unbounded Solutions, then it was called BrighterBrain, and now it's called EnhanceIT. Their whole deal is, they will offer you a "free" crash course in mobile development (or w…

Hey, I mentioned you in my comment elsewhere on this post. Checked your recent comments and found you here.

You were right in 2019, despite being downvoted. Good call. Congrats

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19774532

Re: Fast Crimes at Lambda School

#168

Post by networked »

The HN comment originally made by 'austenallred in https://www.sandofsky.com/content/images/2024/05/image-13.pn... is still available at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13502774 but is now by user '_pecl. The ownership of the comment changed between July 3, 2019 and January 31, 2020 according to https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://news.ycombinator.com/i.... I guess the author realized it reflected badly on him and contacted HN to anonymize the comment.

Edit: This is not to suggest 'austenallred received special treatment.

Re: Fast Crimes at Lambda School

#169

Post by bitwize »

soneca wrote: post #167
bitwize wrote: post #145

I'm reminded of a company I've crossed paths with in the past. It's the same people each time, but when they get found out they tear down the old company and erect a new one with the same business model under a new name. At first it was called Unbounded Solutions, then it was called BrighterBrain, and now it's called EnhanceIT. Their whole deal is, they will offer you a "free" crash course in mobile development (or w…

Hey, I mentioned you in my comment elsewhere on this post. Checked your recent comments and found you here. You were right in 2019, despite being downvoted. Good call. Congrats https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19774532

No worries m8, fwiw I HATE being right about this sort of thing. Unbounded/BrighterBrain/EnhanceIT probably sprang to mind when I read that comment of yours way back when, hence my response.

For anybody out there, if you want to gain coding skills but cannot or do not wish to do a four-year degree program, community colleges in the USA can help close that skill gap for a price much more reasonable than a boot camp. Consider those, or state universities, and potentially save yourself a whole lot of trouble getting caught in a costly trap.

Re: Fast Crimes at Lambda School

#170

Post by jjmarr »

AJC-Official wrote: post #123
jonathankoren wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ISAs were indentured servitude. That's literally what they were. It was the single most scummy concept that Austin came up with and PaulG endorsed.

ISAs are equity in the student's future performance, up to a cap. This can result in paying a huge premium for relatively small amount of effort (a $30k cap for 6 months of online class is comparable to a semester at uni), but with 2 key advantages: a money-back-guarantee and accessibility. With a fixed-cost tuition program, students who can't afford to pay don't go. This prices out students who would benefit from th…

Buying equity in a person is literally what indentured servitude is.

Someone making a deal to give up their future earnings for several years in exchange for a trip to the American colonies and a better life isn't fundamentally different than giving up your future earnings to a coding bootcamp in exchange for a trip to FAANG.

The difference is in the degree of future earnings ceded.

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