I taught myself to code on Udacity, and in a couple weeks I'm going to be launching a social network that I built with one other person. Shit works. There's no reason why everyone shouldn't be on there. edit: Obligatory link to sign up for the private beta: http://fwdeveryone.com/ Also, here is what I wrote about the experience at the time: http://alexkrupp.typepad.com/sensemaking/2013/11/2012-my-yea...
To me what really made me transition is their WebDev course In all seriousness, though, is their CS253 the greatest course ever or is it the greatest course ever?! Huffman was just brilliant in providing a nice framework with which to think about development. After I took that course, it was if Googling my way through problems and learning from the available resources on the internet became that much easier, because now I could see how all of these little parts fit into a broader context.
That's one thing that definitely disappointed me about how Udacity has grown. That course taught by Huffman was so good in that he explained so much of the theory and reasoning, and not just tools. Peter Norvig's advanced Python course is another one of their offerings which feel very similar. Lately, though, I think their courses have resembled much more what you find on CodeAcademy or places like that: A lot more focused on tools, content, etc., and less so on the broader picture.