Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What to tell noobs who want to "learn coding"?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 53 posts

Re: What to tell noobs who want to "learn coding"?

#21

Post by dpweb »

I wouldn't neglect the theory. Bad habits picked up can take years to break.

Find the best book ever written for your language of choice, its Crockford's book for js I imagine - don't know about other languages.

I would NOT learn to write code from random web resources. A good portion of the code on sites is horrible. There's alot of horrific PHP code floating around out there.

Except, find someone on Github who is blowing your mind with their stuff and read through their gists and projects. Succinct and easy to understand code is best. I did this for two hours last night and got more out of it than a month reading weak stuff and the more mediocre books..

Re: What to tell noobs who want to "learn coding"?

#23

Post by Peretus »

jared314 wrote: post #16
Peretus wrote: post #8

I tell them to apply to a developer bootcamp. Schools like this are popping up everywhere because there really are people who are willing (and eager) to hire the students once they graduate. I'm currently attending (and about to graduate from) a developer bootcamp in Austin TX, and I can absolutely recommend this route. Yes, it's impossible to learn everything in such a short amount of time, and attending a bootcamp…

I've been interested in the idea of developer bootcamps recently, because it might make a good trade school for developers looking to retool into a new language/stack. But, I have yet to meet anyone, in my circle of friends, who has acquired their coding skills from them. What is the business model around them like?

The schools usually charge somewhere between $6,000-$20,000, with most falling somewhere around $8K-$12K. The Maker Square has cohorts of around 40 students, split between two buildings, with multiple instructors in each room who help students as needed. We start at 9:00am and leave the space around 5-7pm every evening. We don't have class on the weekends, so those usually end up being study days.

Re: What to tell noobs who want to "learn coding"?

#24

Post by wturner »

Peretus wrote: post #19
wturner wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many of those bootcamps cost an arm and a leg and are selective in that they target well-off kids that get good grades and basically fit in. They do this intentionally so they can sell their prospects to potential employees and keep their numbers and reputation up which is just common sense on their part. I think the better route for someone that is a little rough around the edges is to do it on their own for a few y…

It's true that they cost a great deal. I've had pretty long conversations with the founders about the fact that there is very little likelyhood that someone without significant means could and come up with the tuition. That being said, I was making $35K at my job before I left, and that was the best job I had ever had because I wasn't working outside or serving food. I was accepted on a Thursday, and I quit my job wi…

To each their own. I just have a contrarian nature and always feel obligated to express it.

Re: What to tell noobs who want to "learn coding"?

#25

Post by infinitebattery »

What I have been telling my friends recently is to check out an online course. This one course named CS50x has been amazing in teaching people about CS and programming. So, tell them to see https://www.edx.org/course/harvardx/harvardx-cs50x-introduct... it starts in a few days and can be taken throughout 2014.

Re: What to tell noobs who want to "learn coding"?

#26

Post by harvestmoon »

dpweb wrote: post #21

I wouldn't neglect the theory. Bad habits picked up can take years to break. Find the best book ever written for your language of choice, its Crockford's book for js I imagine - don't know about other languages. I would NOT learn to write code from random web resources. A good portion of the code on sites is horrible. There's alot of horrific PHP code floating around out there. Except, find someone on Github who is b…

I learned to do some MySQL from a random website. Code wasn't great. I didn't learn in detail, either. And it used mysql_query(). Ideally, a book from the last year or so would have been better!

Re: What to tell noobs who want to "learn coding"?

#27

Post by greenyoda »

lowglow wrote: post #13

I would say read this: http://www.techendo.co/posts/how-to-learn-to-program-in-10-e...

I'm very skeptical of any "learn to program" list that begins with "Buy a MacBook Air". You can learn to program just as well on that cheap PC laptop you already own, and a MacBook Air is a very expensive investment for someone who may or may not become a professional programmer.

Also, learning git isn't something that a novice programmer should need to struggle with. It's hard enough figuring out the concepts of programming without having to add on all sorts of other stuff. You don't need git to write a 100-line program.

Finally, the whole list is very skewed toward web development, which not everyone is interested in. People who work in science or business might be more interested in learning how to write programs that manipulate data (e.g., using Python to automate what they would otherwise do with Excel). Others might want to learn how to write games for PCs or iPads. Web apps written in Rails might appeal to the startup crowd, but they're hardly fundamental steps toward learning programming.

Re: What to tell noobs who want to "learn coding"?

#29

Post by jared314 »

Peretus wrote: post #23
jared314 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been interested in the idea of developer bootcamps recently, because it might make a good trade school for developers looking to retool into a new language/stack. But, I have yet to meet anyone, in my circle of friends, who has acquired their coding skills from them. What is the business model around them like?

The schools usually charge somewhere between $6,000-$20,000, with most falling somewhere around $8K-$12K. The Maker Square has cohorts of around 40 students, split between two buildings, with multiple instructors in each room who help students as needed. We start at 9:00am and leave the space around 5-7pm every evening. We don't have class on the weekends, so those usually end up being study days.

Is it a school lesson like structure, similar to what you would get with a CS degree track, or a more a focused project-oriented structure, with increasing difficulty?

Re: What to tell noobs who want to "learn coding"?

#30

Post by Larx-3 »

greenyoda wrote: post #27
lowglow wrote: post #13

I would say read this: http://www.techendo.co/posts/how-to-learn-to-program-in-10-e...

I'm very skeptical of any "learn to program" list that begins with "Buy a MacBook Air". You can learn to program just as well on that cheap PC laptop you already own, and a MacBook Air is a very expensive investment for someone who may or may not become a professional programmer. Also, learning git isn't something that a novice programmer should need to struggle with. It's hard enough figuring out the concepts of pro…

I think it was supposed to be a joke...but it didn't work because it wasn't funny.
Post reply on HN